Our Woman in Space
Namira Salim does not know fear. In 2007, she became the first Pakistani woman to reach the North Pole. Then, in 2008, she became the first Pakistani woman to reach the South Pole and skydive from the top of Mount Everest. All of this has not been enough to sate her pioneering spirit. She now plans to be the first Pakistani woman to travel to space.
When she was a little girl growing up in Dubai to Pakistani parents, Salim remembers being absolutely fascinated by the stars. Her father took the time to teach her the names of constellations, which cemented a long enduring love for the horizon beyond Earth. She spent her time stargazing on the roof of their Dubai home. In fact, Salim was so enthralled that she hypothesized that she had a special connection with space and a greater possibility of getting there, because the first two letters of her first and last name, taken together, spell NASA.
At the time, she could never have imagined that her dream may come true. The opportunity came unexpectedly. In 2007, just before Salim was to launch her bid to travel to the North and then the South poles, she happened to be in Monaco (where she was living) working on her computer when she heard of billionaire Richard Brandon’s Virgin Galactic’s sub-orbital flights. Immediately, she swung into action initiating inquiries into whether she could be one of the few people who could snag a spot on a privately funded space mission. As it turns out, many other people had the same desire and not long after the announcement over 44,000 people were lining up to buy the $200,000 ticket to space.
Salim's success, not specifically in terms of space travel but in terms of interest in astronomy and space travel, points to an area in which Pakistani women do not receive much instruction or direction.
Rafia Zakaria
Luck and biography, however, were on Namira Salim’s side. A few months after the mission was announced, Branson visited Dubai and Salim was invited to the Dubai launch of Virgin Galactic. Salim happened to be one of the first customers from the UAE and once she shared the fact that she would be the first Pakistani woman and the first woman from Monaco and Dubai to travel to space, she got a spot. This year, Virgin Galactic was finally able to send the first private passengers into space aboard the spaceship SpaceshipTwo. It is expected that private flights will follow soon and when they do, Namira Salim’s lifetime dream could finally come true. As she said in an interview to the Orlando Sentinel given this year on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s mission to the moon, Virgin Galactic has really caught up fast, and it seems that suborbital space missions may become increasingly more common.
Namira Salim’s drive to be a pioneer does not only extend to collecting firsts and extreme experiences that make others gasp. There is a philosophy behind her quest to travel to space. In the time since she signed up to be part of Virgin Galactic’s mission in 2007, she has been an avid advocate for private space travel. It is only when this kind of suborbital space travel becomes more accessible to more people, that inroads can be made in science, research and the private ownership of space. Instead of state domination of space, she argues for private control of the realm making it possible for companies, universities, and research institutes to consider the possibilities it presents. In particular, Salim believes that only the possibility of private space travel can help get women like her, who hail from developing countries, an opportunity that women born in wealthy nations already have. Smaller countries do not have the resources to have entirely independent space missions starving their citizens of opportunities for space travel. Flights like the ones being initiated on SpaceshipTwo, are Namira Salim’s answer to the question of propelling more Pakistani women beyond planet Earth.
It is no doubt that Pakistanis, women and men, will avidly be watching and waiting for Namira Salim’s trip to space. At the same time, her success, not specifically in terms of space travel but in terms of interest in astronomy and space travel, points to an area in which Pakistani women do not receive much instruction or direction. Another Pakistani woman, NASA engineer and launch flight control specialist, Hibah Rehmani, who like Salim received her post-secondary education outside Pakistan, remembers being entranced when she was able to consider aeronautical engineering directed toward space travel as a possible career. Rehmani, who returns to Pakistan to talk to young girls about astronomy and engineering, wishes more girls from Pakistan would be introduced to and consider the field.
Both women have a point. If space travel can become possible for Namira Salim and space engineering a reality for Hibah Rehmani, then it is likely that many more Pakistani girls and women can similarly ascend to these heights. In the meantime, the accomplishments of the two women, imminent spaceflight and involvement in launching NASA missions, are a tremendous lot for Pakistan to be proud of. Their stories, like the stories of many expatriate women, underscore the truth that if progress is not being made at home, it is not because of the dearth of talent or intelligence. Namira Salim is set to be the first Pakistani women in space and hopefully the doors she opens for others will insure that she will not be the last. For all Pakistani women, the brave and gutsy Namira Salim is a testament to the fact that it is always good to dream big.
