After making name in football, Karishma Ali has embarked on a new journey to change lives of the women of her area of Chitral valley’ to bring them to leadership positions and then just sit and enjoy.
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Oct 12th, 2020) A Pakistani footballer who is studying at a university has been named among Forbes’ 30 under 30 for making efforts to change the lives of Pakistani women.
According to CNN, Karishma Ali, from the capital Islamabad, where she would have spent most of this year studying at university had a global pandemic not forced the 23-year-old to return to her family home. CNN reported that last year she was named among Forbes' '30 Under 30' in Asia, along with the likes of tennis star Naomi Osaka and K-pop band Black pink, and, having already achieved much, the first woman from her region to have played football at a national and international level.
However, now she has embarked on a journey to make differences in the lives of the women in the patriarchal region where she grew up.
“I want to see at least 10-20 more girls like myself who come back here [Chitral] after they've achieved their dream and work for the other girls that I was not able to reach out to,” said Ms Ali, adding that she wanted to see progressive society where men and women were working equally, where women did not have to stress about traditional customs, and be able to freely do what they can and see that I was part of all of this change.
“I just want to see more women in leadership positions and then sit back and enjoy. This is what I want,” she added.
She also stated: “Challenges are here for the girls, especially to have a different dream or to do something outside of what society expects you to do,”.
However, she said that there are hopes that Chitral Women’s sports Club has been reopened after Covid-19 where the exchange program would soon be organized for the girls to attend a football camp in Islamabad.
The girl said that she received threats when people in her area came to know that she was playing football in Islamabad. Karishma said she continued to play and continue to use her voice.
