DUBAI – The Iron Lady of Pakistan, Muniba Mazari, today invited guests to a compelling evening of discussion at Jubilee Park.
Ahead of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December, at an event titled ‘Pakistan – Connected Through Diversity’, Mazari, who uses a wheelchair after surviving a horrific car accident 13 years ago, insisted it was time to break stereotypes and switch up the script. She also favours the word ‘differently-abled,’ over ‘disabled’.
In her opening remarks, the Pakistani activist, anchor, artist, model, singer and motivational speaker, who has a track record of working with the differently-abled community in Pakistan, said: “Tonight, we are going to celebrate compassion and kindness. We live in a world which tends to celebrate sameness, where people see the world the way they want to see it – a world where people are labelled as crippled, handicapped and disabled. Tonight, let’s change the narrative and replace these negative labels with positive words like ‘courageous,’ and ‘resilient’.”
Mazari, who is the proud mother of a ten-year-old boy she adopted when he was a baby, said the most devastating moment of her life was the day she was told she would never be able to be a mother. “I have always loved kids. Plus, women have been conditioned that if they cannot reproduce they are useless.”
It was a crushing blow, but just as she was on the verge of giving up on everything, her brother – who she credits for being her rock throughout her journey – brought some paints and papers to the hospital and she found an escape route through art.
“Pursuing my dreams to be an artist was my way to change my narrative,” says Mazari who describes her first attempts with her “deformed hand” as “hideous.” Persevering throughout her 26-month recovery period, with the slogan, Let Your Walls Wear Colours, she has since gone on to create her own art brand called Muniba’s Canvas. She has also presented her work in several exhibitions, with her first international exhibition hosted by the Pakistani Embassy in Dubai.
“This is the story of a woman who has always tried to stand tall in the face of diversity while sitting in a wheelchair. I prefer to call what happened to me an ‘incident’ as opposed to an ‘accident’, as it has made me who I am today. It deformed my body, but it transformed my soul,” continued Mazari.
Faced with the choice to “sit in a corner and wait for a miracle to happen”, or to “move forward with grace and gratitude,” Mazari said the miracles manifested themselves when she accepted herself the way she was.
With one of her biggest fears that of having to face people, Mazari went on to not just overcome this fear, but to crush it: her Ted Talk, We are all Perfectly Imperfect, went on to notch up 19 million views.
Aside from this, she was chosen by Pond’s as the Pond’s Miracle Woman and by international hairdressing salon, Toni & Guy, to become the first-ever wheelchair-using model in Asia with a campaign titled, Women of Substance.
In June 2019, Mazari was appointed by the current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, to be a part of Pakistan’s first ever National Youth Council. She is also the First Pakistani UN Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women; one of the BBC’s 100 Inspirational Women of 2015, and one of Forbes 30 Under 30.
“Doctors have put a lot of titanium in my arm, there’s a lot of metal in my back. Maybe that’s why back home people call me the ‘Iron Lady of Pakistan.’ But every time I say all of this, I do so with a smile on my face and I can see the audience smiling too. It reminds me of a beautiful quote, which says when you share the story of your pain and it does not make you cry, it means you have healed. And I think I have.
“I would like to say one more thing: dream big. Aim high and believe in yourself. Because if a woman in a wheelchair can do all this, what’s stopping you?” Mazari concluded.