Inspirational Saira Shams, making Dir proud

Born in Timergara, a town of District Dir Lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Saira in the initial days of her life met with a tragedy of disability as a result of muscular dystrophy due to premature birth. She faced annual muscle surgeries from 1992 till 2011. Her life with a wheelchair started in the year 2011 and this was where she challenged all those hurdles coming in her way, with the support of her late father Shams Ul Qamar, a former politician and honorable elder of the town who never let her daughter realized any disability. 

 Saira’s dream was to be a leader and motivator for the rest of the women and she never compromised over her dream, that is why she became the district counselor of her town and now keeping the role of Vice President women wing of Insaf Youth Wing, a youth group of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf.

Saira is the only writer in her family and she used to send poems to magazines and newspapers when she initially started writing. She added, “I formally started writing after my father passed away which was indeed a painful chapter of my life”.

Saira looks forward to talking about the rights of persons with disabilities in the country which she believes is unavailable. She went through many challenges during her studies accessing the classrooms, exam halls because of no proper stairways for the persons with disabilities which is why she aims to raise her voice for such issues. 

Saira suggests direct representation of persons with disabilities in the decision-making platforms where they can directly represent and share their grievances.

Saira also focuses to empower the women of the area from where she belongs, a typical Pashtun society with many issues of women being accepted as leaders but she tries hard to access as many as she can to inspire them. 

Answering the question “Why women in this society are not empowered?” She said, “Women are capable of doing every single work but she needs to believe in herself before the world believes her”. Narrowing down the details, she said “Women must be empowered if you want an empowered society”.

Saira’s dream is to get into mainstream politics and raise voice for the issues mostly focusing the persons with a disability, demanding accessible routes in the hospitals, schools and every public place, giving them job opportunities raising quota seats, providing small loans for businesses and empowering them to make their future rather giving them charity.

Disrespecting women is another issue she raised and she speaks about it on different platforms. She says “Women are always the center of abuses among men which is not good and it should be stopped”.

Saira is indeed an inspiration for the rest of the women of Dir continuing her struggle not letting her wheelchair a hurdle in her way. She and her two sisters Sumera Shams, a member of the provincial assembly, and Noorena Shams, a national squash player are making their valley proud.

Story by Waqas Haroon