Jamaima Afridi
PESHAWAR: Bushra Afridi, who belongs to Bara area in Khyber tribal district, is a national gold medalist judo player, an international ambassador as a community leader from South Asia, NASA Alumni, and female fitness trainer at Fit Zone gym Hayatabad. She is studying MBA at the University of Peshawar.
Bushra started her struggle from a very young age. She said, “When I was a child our houses were blown up and we became homeless and IDPs. I struggled a lot during my life of displacement and this all happening made me so aggressive. Therefore, I decided to use my energy positively. I started taking part in peaceful activities such as sports where I was using my energy and aggressive attitude in a positive and healthy field i.e. judo”.
Coming from such backward area and being Afridi, it was really difficult for Bushra to convince her parents and her family for taking part in sports. But she never gave up and convinced her family. She said,” My foremost concern is to gain my parents’ trust and now I have fully developed my parents and family trust and they are so proud of me,” she told TNN.
When she was selected for athletics from her school, it was the first time she stated her sports career. She faced a lot of problems during training. She said,” It was really hard for me to continue my training and study simultaneously as I was using local transport. But still, I was hoping that one day these struggles will turn into victories. And now at least I can bear all my expenses and sometimes I support my family as well,” she said.
Masaood Ahmad, Bushra’s sports teacher, has always supported her. He said, “I always tried to convince her family for her sports career as she was having passion for it. And talent from such areas should be highlighted and presented as a role model for other tribal districts.”
Her future goal is to have an organisation for girl where they are taught self-defence in such environment and are trained in different games. My priority will be tribal females as they are suffering more and will try to create different opportunities for them and connect them with the concerned network.
