The Iron Lady Of Pakistan: Muniba Mazari Baloch

If you are mentally strong and willing to be successful, then physical disabilities can’t stop you from achieving your goals and Muniba Mazari Baloch is the perfect example of this. Being on a wheelchair after losing her legs in a major accident, she represented her country in the UN.

Muniba Mazari Baloch was born on 3 March 1987 in southern Punjab province, Pakistan. She is not one who has a single job profile. She is a painter by passion, motivational speaker by choice, model, actor, anchor and activist and also a singer. She completed her schooling from Army Public School and later started her college in her hometown. During her college days in 2003, she got married to a former Pakistani Air Force pilot, Khurram Sahzad.

In 2008, when she was travelling to her home from Quetta with her husband in a car, she met with a very bad accident which made her heavily injured. She got deep cuts in lungs and liver with broken bones in arms, rib-cage, shoulder blade, collarbones and spine. Her complete left-sided body got paralysed and after any surgeries and recovery sessions, she was able to use a wheelchair after two years. These things were not enough, she also got separated from her husband in 2014 and got divorced in 2015. Her husband sued her for 10 million Pakistani Rupees but the case was dismissed by the court in 2018.

During her hospital days, she started painting from the bed and after some time she created her own art brand named as Muniba’s Canvas with a slogan Let your Wall Wear Colours and her awesome artworks have also been showcased in an international exhibition in Dubai which was hosted by Embassy of Pakistan. While painting she also managed Areeb Azhar’s Facebook account on monthly payments and with that she also worked for her adopted son’s school’s startup project called Dheerey Bolo, which promoted Urdu teaching in various schools. Then she catches the eye of the Managing Director of Pakistan Television(PTV) with her TED talk and then she started working with them. She also worked with PONDS as their Pond’s Miracle Women and was chosen as the first wheel-chair model in Asia to get featured by International Hairdressing Salon, Toni & Guy for their campaign named Women of Substance.

She worked with the Pakistan Govt. as a part of a campaign to spread patriotism and unity in Pakistan. She sang a song for them which was uploaded on YouTube in 2017’s Independence Day of Pakistan. In 2019, she became part of Pakistan’s first-ever National youth Council formed by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

She became the National Brand Ambassador for UN Women Pakistan after being shortlisted in the 100 Inspirational Women of 2015 by BBC. She was also in the Forbes 30 list in 2016.