MINGORA: Orphaned at the age of one year and looked after by her mother, a domestic worker, 17-year-old Tahira Mohammad has become the first female IT expert in Swat.

She wants to become a software engineer and leads her own firm, however, financial hurdles have made realisation of her dream difficult.

“I have not seen my father as he died when I was one year old. Since then, my mother reared me working as cleaner and performing other domestic chores in the houses of rich people,” Tahira told Dawn. She has no siblings and lives with her mother in a one-room rented house.

She said that since her childhood she used to go with her mother to different houses and see children playing and working on computer. “When I saw other children playing on computers, I started taking interest in computer and my interest developed into a passion,” said Tahira.

Her mother wanted her to get education and admitted her to a nearby government school. However, her mother fell ill and was unable to work full day but she was in 9th grade.

“My life became hard and I passed matriculation examinations with difficulties. After that I started teaching in a private school in our neighbourhood to help my mother,” she said, adding that she got admission in one-year diploma in Information Technology and successfully completed it.

Tahira Mohammad needs assistance to fulfil her dream

Although Tahira wanted to get computer education yet her mother wanted her to become a doctor so she got admission in FSC pre-medical.

Going to computer institute to complete her diploma was also an uphill task as people in her neighbourhood considered it inappropriate for a girl to go to a college for boys.

“People spoke ill of me and boys used to taunt me but nothing discouraged me. In the morning I am teaching at a private school and in the afternoon I go to PPC College to continue my studies. I got admission in pre-medical for sake of my mother but now she understands my feelings and has allowed me to change my subjects to computer science,” she said.

However, Tahira cannot afford to be admitted to a standard college of computer science as her monthly salary is Rs4,000, which she spends at home. One of the house owners, where her mother works, gave her a laptop. She uses the laptop for software programming.

She loves to design software and, so far, she has made a software porgramme for birth registration. She is also working on her own website to collect data on violence against women.

“There will be software on my website where people from everywhere will be able to add information regarding violence against women. I am also working on a software game to promote women rights,” she claimed.

Tahira said that her dream of becoming a software engineer would be become true if provincial or federal government helped her to get admission in a standard computer science college.

She said that she wanted to become a role model for girls of poor families. “I want to encourage and motivate girls, particularly from the poor families to show them that they can do and achieve their aims if they try,” she added.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2017