Khansa Maria has become the first ever visually impaired Pakistani woman to be awarded with prestigious Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, United Kingdom (UK).
Khansa Maria – a 21-year-old senior enrolled in BS Foreign Service program at Georgetown University Qatar, has become the first ever Pakistani woman with disabilities to be named a Rhodes scholar-elect.
Maria is a graduate of Lahore Grammar School who faced innumerable adversities and challenges in her daily and especially academic life in Pakistan due to being visually impaired.
Schools’ administrations and pupils in Pakistan did not cater to my needs back in the days…it was disappointing, she noted.
Recalling her days in Pakistan, Maria said that some people saw her as inspiration back then, but she didn’t feel like an inspiration as hadn’t done anything to be an inspiration, she argued.
She strongly believes that her ‘blindness should not be the sole defining factor about her’.
However, Khansa successfully overcame every adversity, hurdle and did not allow her visual imparity to undermine her ambitions and goals.
It is her belief that the exclusion of people with disabilities in the policy making, implementation process is the prime reason for little or no essential especial provisions in various domains and sectors as required by people with special needs.
The disable community lacks voice…you don’t see disable people on the mainstream media, platforms, she highlighted.
Khansa Maria has reiterated her commitment to change these circumstances as she intends to return back to Pakistan after completing her postgraduate at the Oxford University.
