Wed November 27, 2013
Pakistan's Pride Not Done Climbing Mountains, Next Stop Antarctica
VITAMIN W Staff
Samina Baig and her brother Mirza Ali Baig are at it again--climbing mountains to promote the message that females are powerful.
She became the first Pakistani woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest in June and is embarking on an expedition to scale seven major peaks around the world.
On Nov. 30, Baig and her brother, Mirza Ali Baig, will set off to tackle Mount Vinson, the highest in Antarctica, Argentina’s Aconcagua, the tallest peak in the Americas and others in Russia, Indonesia and Nepal.
“I want to tell women in developing countries that they are as powerful as their male counterparts and they can play an equal role in their respective societies,” the 21-year-old told Newsweek Pakistan.
Baig and her brother's expeditions are being funded by The Adventure Diplomacy Group. She hails from a mountainous region that unlike most of Pakistan has an 100 percent female literacy rate, Baig said she climbs to show the strength of women.
Her own upbringing in Hunza, in the Karakorum mountain range in northern Pakistan, inspired her.
“A girl child has as equal rights as their male counterparts and our community does everything to educate female children,” Baig said. "....in my community, women are as important as males and they are playing an equal role in the society.”
Photos: Karakorum Expeditions on Creative Commons/Flickr
