Born into a feudal family in Jhang, a district in the South Punjab province of Pakistan, Fatima Zahra is the daughter of a Judge. Growing up, she realized that she was privileged to be born into a household where education was a top priority and gender was not a barrier to opportunities. This awareness instilled in her a sense of responsibility to give back to the place of her birth and its people.
For Fatima, no field seemed more impactful than medicine, particularly in providing healthcare facilities to those who cannot afford them. She entered the Aga Khan University (AKU) with the vision of not just becoming a great doctor but also making a difference. In her third year of medical school, Fatima discovered her true calling in ophthalmology. Under the mentorship of esteemed ophthalmologists, Dr Karim Damji and Dr Haroon Tayyab, her passion flourished. With their guidance, she founded the first-ever Ophthalmology Interest Group at AKU, a pioneering initiative to nurture future vision specialists.
She is committed to creating opportunities and aims to establish a state-of-the-art hospital in Jhang, with a focus on advanced eye care. Her ambition to become a vitreoretinal surgeon is fuelled by her dedication to preventing blindness, especially in newborns affected by Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), through timely intervention.
Dr Zahra has been actively involved in community service, which she considers a source of unparalleled happiness. She regards her work on creating reusable, environmentally friendly sanitary napkins for flood-affected victims of the 2022 Pakistan floods as one of her greatest achievements. Beyond medicine, Fatima has a keen interest in law, an area she inherited from her father, and enjoys Urdu poetry.
Born into a feudal family in Jhang, a district in the South Punjab province of Pakistan, Fatima Zahra is the daughter of a Judge. Growing up, she realized that she was privileged to be born into a household where education was a top priority and gender was not a barrier to opportunities. This awareness instilled in her a sense of responsibility to give back to the place of her birth and its people.
For Fatima, no field seemed more impactful than medicine, particularly in providing healthcare facilities to those who cannot afford them. She entered the Aga Khan University (AKU) with the vision of not just becoming a great doctor but also making a difference. In her third year of medical school, Fatima discovered her true calling in ophthalmology. Under the mentorship of esteemed ophthalmologists, Dr Karim Damji and Dr Haroon Tayyab, her passion flourished. With their guidance, she founded the first-ever Ophthalmology Interest Group at AKU, a pioneering initiative to nurture future vision specialists.
She is committed to creating opportunities and aims to establish a state-of-the-art hospital in Jhang, with a focus on advanced eye care. Her ambition to become a vitreoretinal surgeon is fuelled by her dedication to preventing blindness, especially in newborns affected by Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), through timely intervention.
Dr Zahra has been actively involved in community service, which she considers a source of unparalleled happiness. She regards her work on creating reusable, environmentally friendly sanitary napkins for flood-affected victims of the 2022 Pakistan floods as one of her greatest achievements. Beyond medicine, Fatima has a keen interest in law, an area she inherited from her father, and enjoys Urdu poetry.
