Kashmiri woman Iram Habib gives wings to her aspirations

coastaldigest.com web desk
August 31, 2018

When the teenage Kashmiri girl Iram Habib expressed her wish to join the aviation sector after Class XII, no one was ready to support her. But, she did not give up on her dreams. Now, the 30-year-old has become the only woman pilot from Srinagar to fly a commercial aircraft. She will join a private airline next month.

It took her six years to convince her parents to allow her to pursue her dream and to find a new lease of life at a flying school in the US. Her parents were understandably apprehensive about allowing their daughter to join the aviation sector as they thought commercial flying wasn’t meant for women living in conflict-torn Kashmir, but looking at her passion, they gave up. Iram’s father Habibulah Zargar is a supplier of surgical equipment to government hospitals.

Iram succeeds Tanvi Raina, a Kashmiri Pandit, who joined Air India as the Valley’s first woman pilot in 2016. In April last year, 21-year-old Ayesha Aziz, also from Kashmir, became India’s youngest student pilot. Iram’s road to becoming a pilot was never easy since it passed through the conservative Kashmiri society.

She completed her training from Miami in the US in 2016 and became a commercial pilot there. “Everyone was surprised to find that I am a Kashmiri Muslim doing flying but I went ahead to achieve my goal,” she said.

“I had to study hard and pass exams. In the US, I had 260 hours of flying experience, which is important for the licence. I got a commercial pilot licence in the US and Canada on the basis of my flying hours but I wanted to work in India,” she said.

Today, with offers from IndiGo and GoAir, she has become the first and the youngest commercial pilot from Srinagar. But despite her accomplishments, her choice of career is still frowned upon by relatives. “They still can’t believe I chose this profession and got a job too!”

Iram has also been trained in Bahrain and Dubai in Airbus 320. In an official statement by Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir, Iram's alma mater. “It is a proud moment for the Faculty of Forestry, SKUAST-K that one of our M.Sc Forestry pass outs, namely Iram Habib has been selected as a first officer in the aviation sector,” it said.

Comments

Sangita Kurla
 - 
Friday, 31 Aug 2018

Perfect match for Salman Khan

Mbeary
 - 
Friday, 31 Aug 2018

Cmin coastaldigest. Atleast u can be reponsible by not posting so many of her unwanted photos.

.now all our beary brothers will comment sarcastically, teaching her islam

 

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 4,2020

A 53-year-old Indian worker in the UAE has missed a special repatriation flight after he dozed off at the Dubai International Airport, a media report said.

P Shajahan, who worked as a storekeeper in Abu Dhabi, was supposed to fly to Thiruvananthapuram on the Emirates jumbo jet chartered by the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC) Dubai, Gulf News reported.

It was the first-ever jumbo jet chartered for repatriation.

Shajahan, who had paid 1,100 dirham (USD 300) for the ticket, said that he did not sleep on the previous night as he kept on waiting for the confirmation of his ticket for the jumbo jet flying 427 stranded Indians to Kerala, it said.

He reached the airport early in the morning and after finishing the check-in procedures and rapid test, he reached the waiting area of the boarding gate at Terminal 3 around 2 PM local time, the report said.

“I sat away from most of the others. But I fell asleep after 4.30 PM,” he said.

S Nizamudeen Kollam, who coordinated the charter flight, said that the airline officials could not trace Shajahan when the flight was to take off.

“He woke up and called us after the flight left. It is sad that he missed the flight, which was the first-ever jumbo jet chartered for repatriation. We are now trying to send him on another Emirates flight that we are chartering on Saturday,” Kollam said.

Since Shajahan did not have any money, Jasimkhan Kallambalam, organising secretary of KMCC Thiruvananthapuram, went to the airport to meet him on Friday.

“Since his visa was cancelled, he could not come out of the airport. He had only eaten the snacks in the kit KMCC had given. We managed to give him some cash for buying food through KMCC volunteer Alamsha Latheef,” Kallambalam said.

In March, another Indian expat had fallen asleep in the same terminal and missed the last flight home before flights were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was stranded here for over 50 days before getting repatriated.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 16,2020

Shivamogga, Jun 16: The Deputy Commissioner on Tuesday announced a ban on movement of heavy goods vehicles in the Agumbe ghat section between June 15 and October 15 as a precautionary measure, as there was possibility of landslides due to heavy rain during the monsoon season.

All trucks over 12 tonnes will be prohibited from passing through the ghat, DC K B Shivakumar said in a statement here.

The authorities have suggested two alternative routes for the movement of heavy freight vehicles – the Shimoga-Thirthahalli-Sringeri-Kerekatte-Karkala-Udupi-Mangaluru route and the Shimoga-Thirthahalli-Mastikette-Hulikal-Hosangadi-Siddapura-Udupi-Mangaluru route.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 11,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 11: DK Shivakumar has been appointed as the new president of the party's Karnataka unit, an official said on Wednesday.

"Congress president (Sonia Gandhi) has appointed D.K. Shivakumar as the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC)," said party's general secretary K.C. Venugopal in a statement from New Delhi.

Party's state unit leaders Eshwar Khandre, Satish Jharkiholi and Saleem Ahammed are the working presidents in the southern state.

"Former chief minister Siddaramaiah will continue as the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader and opposition leader in the state legislative assembly.

MLC M. Narayanswamy and MLA Ajay Singh will be the party's chief whips in the state legislative council and assembly.

Congress appoints Anil Chaudhary as DPCC chief

The Congress on Wednesday appointed former MLA Anil Chaudhary as its Delhi unit chief, while also naming five vice-presidents for the DPCC.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi named Chaudhary president and Abhishek Dutt, Shivani Chopra, Jaikishan, Mudit Agarwal and Ali Hassan vice-presidents of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), a party statement said.

Subhash Chopra had resigned as the Delhi Congress chief in February, taking moral responsibility for the party's debacle in the Assembly polls.

The Congress drew a blank for the second time in a row in the Delhi Assembly polls and reduced its vote share from 9.7 per cent in 2015 to 4.27 per cent this time.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.