Women - 14

When Rubab Raza hits the water at Athens on August 20, she will be making history — the 15-year-old will be the first Pakistani woman in an Olympic swimming event. And though she has no illusions of winning a medal, she’s aware that her presence alone will boost the cause of women’s swimming in Pakistan. [...]

Forty-year-old Rifaat Haye is one of the only three women to fly for Pakistan International Airlines. Fourteen years back she did the unthinkable in Pakistani society. She began flying lessons and made it as one of only three women to fly for Pakistan International Airlines “My family was quite supportive of me except my husband [...]

Nursing bandaged, frostbitten feet, Edurne Pasaban has just joined the ranks of the international mountaineering circuit’s elite. On Monday, the slim 30-year-old from Spain became only the sixth woman to reach the the peak of K2, the world’s second highest mountain. The other five are all dead. They either died during the descent, like Britain’s [...]

On her first day of school in America, Subeia Ahmed sat front and center in the Framingham High School classroom, armed with an English dictionary and a neat row of freshly sharpened pencils. The 15-year-old was determined to succeed, but faced a far more difficult transition than most freshmen. She, along with her mother and [...]

Pakistan’s fashion models are slowly managing to crawl on to international catwalks and into overseas magazines. But hidden behind the kohl-rimmed eyes and the perfectly plastered smiles are women who are paying a heavy price for stepping into designer stilettos.

Rubab Raza, from Lahore, goes to school but has still found time to compete in many international swimming matches. She has won two silver medals and one bronze in the ninth South Asian games held in Islamabad this year. The dynamic teenager has taken part in championships in India and Spain and hopes to win [...]