PESHAWAR: Overcoming immense physical challenges and personal hardships, Sania Hasnain, a determined fashion designer hailing from Sadda in Kurram tribal district, is on a dedicated mission to empower housebound young girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by teaching them market-oriented vocational skills.

Having relocated to Peshawar with her family several years ago, she has devoted her life to ensuring that underprivileged and housebound young women in her community are not left behind.

Despite being physically challenged herself, Ms Hasnin travels on foot daily from house to house across local neighbourhoods to impart practical skills in garment design, fabric manipulation, surface embellishment and traditional crafts to young girls, who are otherwise confined to their homes.

Her voluntary initiative aims to bring these marginalised young women into the economic mainstream, offering them a genuine opportunity for financial independence and self-reliance. However, the complete absence of a centralised training facility, proper equipment and basic instructional resources continues to pose a major hurdle to scaling up her humanitarian and educational efforts.

“A fashion designer is one, who has the skill to design clothes for women, men, and children. “I have six years of experience in designing fashion and forecasting what will be popular with consumers. My core objective now is to share this technical knowledge with young girls, who lack access to formal education or institutional training facilities,” Ms Hasnin told this scribe.

A graduate of Iqra National University, she brings extensive technical expertise, spanning concept sketching, draping, screen printing, and patch work, to her doorstep teaching endeavours. Her academic foundation and professional background enable her to provide comprehensive guidance on both traditional handiwork and modern digital design tools.

“My professional work involves drawing and sketching clothes, accessories, or shoes for retail companies, as well as forecasting market trends a year ahead. It requires managing a creative team to apply fashion sketches to assemble final garments while collaborating with buyers to develop complete products. I want these young girls to master these exact same skills so they can generate their own sustainable income,” she said.

She urged parents of such special persons, especially young girls, to give them full access to education or vocational skills so that they might never be a burden on them. “When special persons are economically empowered, they can defend their own rights, earn an honourable living for themselves and never have to beg from others,” she added.

Looking towards her future targets, Ms Hasnin has planned to establish a permanent vocational centre, expand her network to surrounding tribal districts and launch an independent artisan brand managed entirely by her students to showcase their creations in national and international exhibitions.

She said that her ultimate vision was to create an inclusive production hub where disabled and housebound women could independently create and market their own collections. “With proper institutional support, we can transform these talented young girls into thriving fashion entrepreneurs, who contribute directly to our national economy” she concluded.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2026