Zahra speaks

Every picture narrates a story and this picture is one of the most special pictures of my life. It is clicked in front of the Governor's house, Lahore. I went to meet the Governor and convey some of my suggestions regarding rehabilitation and accessible education for the PWD's. This meeting did not happen magically nor I had a connection with any politician. One of my good uncles read my blogs and shared it with the human rights advisor for the Governor. She organized the meeting and was very supportive throughout the procedure. It was one of those events when I felt empowered. In the room that had the Governor of Punjab, his team, and the Human Rights advisor, I felt that I found my voice. Although I was very nervous about the meeting, after all, it was an important personality that I was going to meet and who might have an influence in bringing the change that I am working towards. When I entered that room and I started talking, I felt that much more confident than ever. Even...

Self-isolation is the new norm. We are keeping a 'safe' distance from more than 3 months now. The thought of being isolated is usually very daunting but as we are in quarantine for such a long period, a sense of patience has predominated in most of the people. Everybody is putting in their 100% effort. This particular period reminded me of a very bittersweet time of my life.  I have been in a wheelchair for almost 10 years and we know there is no facilitation of rehabilitation in Pakistan. I was discharged from the hospital within a few weeks of my surgery. To be clear, I had spinal decompression surgery. I had a giant cell tumor on the C7-T1 level on my spinal cord. I will not be going to details but I was pretty stiff when I left the hospital. It was difficult for my family to actually seat me in the car. I was sent home without any instructions as to how to manage neither myself nor my parents were an expert in managing a paralyzed patient. However, the good thing about the ...

If you can move your feet and walk on your own then you should be very thankful for each moment in your life. We don't realize the importance of such small blessings. When something is taken away from you, it is exactly the time when you realize the worth of that thing. Operating your legs or walking may seem very casual things that you do in routine but trust me these things are worth being thankful for each day. Everyone has a story to tell; my story revolves around the turn of events that turned me into a fighter. I found happiness in the most difficult time of my life with the divine intervention of The Almighty.  I could have been a normal carefree teenager but God had other plans for me. I was 16 years old when a complex diagnosis declared that I had tuberculosis of the bone. The doctor suggested some. Without any delay, I began the course. Naturally, the term tuberculosis scared my family and so without taking a second opinion, we opted to start the medicine. It would ...

A few months ago, I was invited to participate in a conference. The forum was on the national level for the women with disabilities. As the conference was held in Lahore I decided to partake but when I reached the venue I was extremely shocked to see that the venue was not wheelchair accessible and had more than 7 stairs on the entrance. When we enquired from the staff, they bluntly asserted that they will lift my chair up to the entrance of the hotel. Although everything was fantastic in that hotel. It was extremely shameful that despite being informed about the nature of the conference beforehand, the management did not arrange anything to facilitate the people with disabilities who were about to participate in the conference. The conference was aimed to address the issues faced by the people with disabilities in the society and the very location where we were discussing the problems was itself wheelchair inaccessible, the irony is unmistakable! Recently, it was my sisters birthda...

After my first surgery, I was in a very crucial state as my vertebra was not completely supporting the activity of my neck due to its incomplete structure. At that time, the young doctors were on a strike and all the activities of the hospitals were abandoned so my crucial surgery was delayed due to this issue. At this point in time, the doctor himself stated that a little mismanagement with the movement can cause a collapse so in that span of 2 weeks we were continuously living on the edge and additionally I was discharged from the hospital as my next surgery was going to occur in a government hospital. As I was discharged, a very difficult phase of my ailment began. I had to lie straight on my back so that any unusual movement would not happen to result in any collapse. I was always a very active teenager and I never thought that there will be a time when I will be confined to my bed doing nothing but look write up on the wall to discover fascinating artworks from the cracks in th...

Confinement is merely in one's mind because one can find anything that they look for if the intentions are pure. I was in a need to find the meaning of my life. With the enormous support of my friends and family, there were certainly some more things that made me able to grasp beyond the walls of my house. Cricket which might be just a game for a few people but it was not just a game from me as it helped me get a direction out of the darkness that prevailed my life at that time. I first fell in love with this game in the year 2009, when Younis Khan brought the T20 World Cup Trophy home. He was and still remains my favorite cricketer although he was later joined by Misbah Ul Haq in my favorite cricketers' league. When I went in for my surgery, I still remember the world cup 2011 was going on and my mind was struck by a very important match Pakistan was playing that day. It dimmed the effect of a very hard event that was going on in my life. The semi-final of that particular wo...

One of the most initial indications of my ailment was a weakness in my right arm and hand. In a span of a few weeks, I lost my hand grip which meant that I could not hold a pen and hence I had to give up my studies to go for treatment. I still remember the day when I went into the classroom and I could not sit due to tremendous pain in my back. My teacher was getting so enraged and ultimately, she asked me to leave the class and go home to take some rest. Sadly this was the day when I went to my school for the last time as a student. I was an O level student and was supposed to appear for my final exams in 2 months when this ailment seized me. I was very enthusiastic about my studies. My preparation was in full-fledged but right before my exams, I had to give up my studies because I could not even hold a pen let alone appearing in my exams. Obviously, as a teenager, this was a very heartbreaking circumstance to accept that all the effort and hard work was going in vain. With every pa...

The transition from an impeccably healthy individual to being in a wheelchair is very hard. It wasn't easy for me either but it gets harder when you don't get any backing from your friends, family and the society. I was lucky because I got support from my incredible family as they pulled me out from a phase of disparity into being grateful for what I have despite the agony I had to undergo. Everything changed but the only thing that didn't change was my hope and believe that everything will be alright. Life can be pretty hard at times but the only way we can get over this severity is by believing in ourselves and The Almighty. When you cannot control a situation it is best to submit it to the most superlative authority: God! Any set of circumstances that tests your patience is sort of a trial from the Almighty to see how we deal with the muddle and still be grateful to Him for all his blessings. I know all of this seems to be very dramatic but it is true. Our plans are al...