Sahib-e-Asra, the young female athlete from Faisalabad and daughter of Imam Qari Alam Khan, is breaking speed barriers and breaking stereotypes with her stellar performance in sprint tournaments all over Pakistan. She is one of Pakistan’s fastest female athletes, and is winning gold medals left, right and centre.
Sahib-e-Asra started her career as an athlete runner back in school, taking part in division and district level competitions as much as she could. She also proved herself and started to sprint at province-wide tournaments. It is then that she truly arrived, as she bagged a gold medal in one of those tournaments.
The young athlete was told that support for sportspeople in Pakistan, especially females, was far behind even when compared to countries like Bangladesh, yet she remained undeterred . Asra shared that her father, who is an imam, was supportive of her career as a sportswoman, despite what people could generally assume.
She also revealed that it was people that they knew, associates and acquaintances, that were opposed to the idea and tried to convince her father not to let her carry on with a career as an athlete. Asra said that her father paid no heed to the unsolicited advice and let her continue with her passion.
Qari Alam Khan is a proud father and he shared with a daily publication that when her (Asra) school teachers told him that his daughter was a sprinter and a fairly good one at that, it made him happy.
“I am as proud of my daughter, as I am of my son,” said Qari Alam.
Qari Alam is redefining stereotypes and showing the world what it is to be a #girldad, and we couldn’t be more proud.