Women may have made create a place for themselves everywhere, from the faraway moon to everywhere else on Earth, but when it’s a courier we’re expecting, we usually presume the arrival of ‘courier waale bhaiya’. More often than not, the imagery that’s stuck with us is of a man coming over to hand us our package. But what if your ‘courier waale bhaiya’ was a young lady? No, this is not a figment of our imagination.
Here’s presenting to you the first female courier in Pakistan, 19-year-old Aisha Siddiqua. Aisha has been delivering packages in the country for approximately two months. Her mother is a banker and father is a lawyer, apart from being a voracious reader of books on science. Aisha says of her feat that most women would not be able to pull off something of the sort owing to lack of support from family, but she has been lucky to have her parents and siblings by her side in her attempt to break through societal stereotypes.
Her father’s interest in books is what lead to Aisha’s career choice. Her father gets books delivered to his home since the ones he reads are not widely available in Pakistan. Aisha grew up seeing men deliver stuff around the city and wondered why women never took this up. After contemplating for a month or so, Aisha finally took the leap and applied for this job.
Understandably the management of the agency she applied to was perplexed and asked her repeatedly if she really was up for this task. Several interviews and sessions of rigorous training later the company figured she was going to stick around. Aisha starts her work-day at 9 am and gets done with work by 7 pm. While she mainly caters to upmarket areas such as Clifton and DHA, Aisha has also delivered to Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi.
Aisha does her rounds in a car accompanied by a driver, and admits to several surprised faces greeting her at places she delivers to. Aisha says that many women have enquired about how they do can take up this job and says she will learn to drive and even drive around the city if need be. When asked how she’d deal with miscreants, she sticks to how she will ignore them because her work is her answer to them.
Pakistan’s first female courier says she would not in the least bit mind riding around on a motorbike, and hopes that someday women riding on bikes and delivering packages will become a sight so commonplace it will no longer turn heads. Kudos to Pakistan’s first female courier and here’s hoping she inspires several other women to get out of their shell and do whatever job they wish to.
