PESHAWAR: Four times each month, Rehana Gul positions herself behind the radio console at FM 92.2 Pakhtunkhwa in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar to tell the stories of people with disabilities, describe their struggles and share inspirational tales of their successes despite all odds.
Policy makers, researchers and medical doctors come on the line to provide commentary and answer questions, and this 27-year-old resident of Peshawar handles all this seamlessly, despite the fact that she has been blind from birth.
Rehana Gul behind the radio console at FM 92.2 Pakhtunkhwa in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on September 2, 2020. (AN Photo)
For Gul, the road to becoming the first ever blind radio presenter in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has been paved with obstacles.
Since she was young, Gul was used to hearing the common refrain: “Rehana Gul is blind and also a woman and she will always need someone to hold her hand,” Gul told Arab News in an interview in her disk jockey’s vibrant voice. “Society is patriarchal and less educated about women and disable persons’ rights but nothing deterred me.”
Rehana Gul, the first ever blind radio presenter in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, poses at her home in Peshawar, Pakistan, on August 31, 2020 (AN Photo)
Gul was born in Shergarh town of district Mardan and first came to the city of Rawalpindi for treatment when she was six years old. After several checkups, the doctors told her elder brother she would never be able to see and he should enroll her at a school for blind people in the city’s Shamsabad area.
She studied there until the 10th grade, before switching to a regular college and finally enrolled in an educational psychology degree at the University of Peshawar. She then took a job as a voluntary teacher at a school for people with visual impairments in Peshawar, always dreaming of breaking into a career that would help her contribute to her household, especially to help support her illiterate elder brother who she says has always been a pillar of strength, and a cousin in whose house she resides in Peshawar.
About a year ago, a friend referred Gul to try out for a job at FM 92.2. The producer was impressed with her voice, Gul said, and spoke to station director Ansar Khilji about offering her a slot. Soon after, Gul pitched the idea for a program called ‘Mashaloona,’ or ‘Light,’ to highlight the issues of people with disabilities. It was approved.
Rehana Gul behind the radio console at FM 92.2 Pakhtunkhwa in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on September 2, 2020. (AN Photo)
“Introducing Rehana was not an easy task,” Khilji said, speaking about dominant attitudes in the radio industry against people with disabilities. “But Rehana is a prolific presenter … and has perfect voice, delivery and clarity.”
Though Gul says she does not earn enough from her radio show to be self-sufficient or support her family, she said she was glad to finally have a platform to highlight the problems faced by Pakistanis who were not fully sighted or able-bodied.
“Blindness is no more a hurdle for me and that’s why I want to change the minds of those who listen to me, and let them know about the genuine rights of persons with disabilities,” she said. “There is nothing impossible in this world.”
