Pakistan squash sensation Noorena Shams to speak at UN event in Geneva

 

KARACHI: Pakistan squash player Noorena Shams has been invited to participate as a panellist in the United Nations Human Rights Council social forum, which will be held in Geneva from October 1-3.

The social forum is an annual three-day meeting convened by the Human Rights Council. 

This year, the meeting of the social forum will focus on “the possibilities of using sport and the Olympic ideal to promote human rights for all and to strengthen universal respect for them.”

Noorena says that this is a great opportunity for her to highlight issues of Pakistani athletes and she intends to do that in a positive way. 
“I strongly believe my participation will bring light to many problems we athletes of Pakistan face,” she said.

“I do not wish to highlight these issues to portray a negative image of my country but rather to be able to sit with amazing minds from around the globe and work towards the bringing back the lost glory of Pakistan.

"Furthermore participating in this event shows that my rights as an athlete are not only valued globally but are also valued in our country,” Noorena told geo.tv

Hailing from Lower Dir, Pakistan, Noorena Shams is a 21-year-old athlete from one of the most socially undeveloped areas in the country.

Currently, she is an international squash player ranked 127th in the world and has raced up to this rank in a very short time.

Having represented Pakistan internationally at Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia, Noorena also holds the honour of being the first ever international female sports person from Malakand division in the past century. 


“Our society is socially and economically oppressed. Yet despite that, our athletes are able to showcase their skills internationally with the limited resources available to them,” she said when asked what sort of issues Pakistani athletes are facing in general.

“Both local and international investors should seek to invest in sports in Pakistan without discriminating between the type of sports. If we invest in sports, we invest in a future for our youth. That is how a nation wins,” she added.

Noorena, as she explains herself, is a fierce critic of sexual harassment, discrimination and inequality against women in Pakistan and around the world in all domains of life and specifically in sports.

She has previously spoken at the UN Commission on the Status of Women 2017 in NYC.