By Ann M. Simmons for Los Angeles Times – November 5, 2015
Tired, cold, hungry and roughly 800 feet from Mt. Everest’s summit, Samina Baig had only one thought in mind:
“I have to reach the top,” Baig said. “I was very clear about that.”
As it is for every serious mountaineering aficionado, reaching the summit of Everest, the world’s highest mountain at 29,029 feet, was a dream. But for Baig, 25, who hails from remote Shimshal village in Pakistan’s Upper Hunza Valley, there was something more.
As the first Pakistani female to reach the top of Everest, she would be sending a message to fellow citizens in a country sometimes criticized for its subjugation of women and where, in the most commonly known example, a teenager named Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban extremists in 2012 for demanding that girls be allowed to receive an education.“
On Mt. Everest, I was not Samina Baig,” said the mountaineer whose home region is known for its high literacy rate, tolerance and gender equality. “I was representing Pakistani women. I was thinking that if I don’t make it, how am I going to encourage other women? I had to do it.”
More at the Source: First Pakistani woman to summit Everest encourages women to ‘climb their own mountains’ – LA Times
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