Namira Saleem

Dreams come true, only when one is truly willing to make them happen. Need to know how?!! Meet Namira Saleem.

Belonging to a Pakistani family, born in Karachi settled in Southern France Namira Saleem has materialized her dreams when she is hardly 35 years old. She is single and lives with her parents. She always had a strong belief in her dreams, and most of them had come true. She made her mark as a professional astronaut who has been to the South Pole and as well as the North Pole and has breathed there, all happy and proud. She has been able to hoist Pakistan’s flag at the poles.

She had been to the South Pole earlier and now she has become the first Pakistani to reach the top of the world - the Geographic North Pole. She awaits her space flight and is due to become the first Pakistani to travel into space in 2008. She has completed her necessary training in America and now she is ready for her space mission. It is a great Honor as no other Pakistani has ever done this and she surely deserves to be appreciated. Namira said it was her childhood dream to become an astronaut. She will undertake the two-hour long space journey which would take place in this very year of 2008. It will be a sub-orbital flight which will break the boundary between earth and space and she will have the honor and thrill of staying there for 15 minutes. For this, she will receive “Commercial Astronaut Wing” from the US Federal Aviation Authority.

She completed her last term of training in a TS-400 Simulator. During the simulator she experienced weightlessness and other forces which are encountered while being in a space flight and now she is completely ready after enjoying and having learnt from all these experiences.

Her latest experience of being at the North Pole was quite very enriching. She was extremely happy when she conveyed her feelings from a satellite phone. “It is great honor to represent my country as the first Pakistani citizen at the Geographic North Pole during the ‘International Polar Year’ that marks the challenge of climate change our planet faces”, Namira told this from the North Pole through a satellite phone.

“As I hoist the Pakistan flag at the pinnacle of our planet, I convey a universal message of peace and to assert to the global community that Pakistani nation is peace loving and tolerant nation,” she added.

Based in Southern France, Namira has deep affiliation with innovative art and multi-dimensional mixed media, some created around poetry she writes and some are musical she incorporates into songs in her own voice.

Her collectibles and decorative art objects also come along her to support global causes.

Namira created a specialized line of musical art objects with built-in messages in the voices of renowned altruists, first unveiled at the United Nations in May 2002.

“As a humanitarian artist and a truly global citizen I have also come to hoist a flag of universal peace at the Pole,” she said, adding that this peace flag bears the theme of her United Nations exhibition ‘Peace-Making with Nation-Souls.’

She sees the war and conflict with pain and hopes that tolerance can be inspired through the arts and understanding for the peace and progress of the world.

“The North Pole bears an amazing resemblance to Pakistani’s scenic Northern Areas” said Namira, expressing her sentiments of joy and happiness.

“As Pakistan’s Honorary Ambassador of Tourism, I’d like to invite the world to experience Pakistan’s rich culture and to touch the world’s top most mountain peaks, like the K-2,” she stated.

Namira also praised the 2004 Polar expedition of Anouskha Kachelo, a Pakistan born UK citizen who is known to be the youngest woman to have reached the North Pole.

“My Polar mission is that of a peace ambassador, while Anouska’s expedition was that of a true adventurer. It remains a source of inspiration for me to this day,” she said.

Namira Saleem had also made an attempt to hoist Pakistani flag at the North Pole on April 14, but could not succeed due to bad weather.

Now, she is all set to enter into space as a Proud Pakistani. She has indeed come a long way in her professional pursuit. Namira’s artistic soul is all the more peace-loving and tolerant towards the beautiful world out there and feels that we must reflect a positive image of Pakistan as a peace-loving and progressive country.

Pakistan needs more souls like you… WELL DONE LADY!!!

(Profile by: Talha Abbasi-Pakistanileaders.com)