”i am dedicated this international awards to my shaheed< martyred> husband Aziz Ullah Haidari”.Saadia Seha Pakistan’s first woman photojournalist: inspired by the husband she lost to war
ISLAMABAD ;By.Asghar Ali Mubarak
Pakistan’s first woman photojournalist: inspired by the husband she lost to war ,Saadia Sehar after the death of her husband, a Reuter’s photojournalist, decided to remember him by pursuing photography herself, this correspondent first time met him at JINNAH STADIUM Islamabad where she was with camera for covering the South Asian Games(or 9th SAF Games) were held in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2004.which was Originally scheduled for 2001, these games were postponed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States .The slogan for these Games was “Rising Above”. The games in Islamabad were originally to be held in 2001, but they were inevitably rescheduled with the location remaining unchanged) for March 29 through April 6, 2003, due to the invasion of Afghanistan. Afghanistan was invited for the games, however Bhutan and India withdrew. Saadia Sehar was that day very upset due to the sudden death of her husband an afghan national photographer Aziz Ullah Haidari who was associated with world largest media organization Reuter. Photographer Aziz Ullah Haidari ,on 19 November 2001 Saadia Sehar received a call from the Reuters Pakistan bureau photographer Aziz Ullah Haidari killed ,when a convoy of journalists was ambushed in Afghanistan. Saadi is a very strong and brave lady she stated in a interview that‘’I remember the wife of my husband’s colleague standing in front of me telling me, “Be strong Saadia”, “Hold yourself”. Those words broke me inside.’’ I was married on 28 January 1996 after a four-year love affair. We faced many problems from our families; they were against our marriage because we came from different cultures and countries. It was the first experience our family had had of intercultural marriage saadia added.She further stated Aziz had joined Reuters in November 1991 as a correspondent and photographer. We met for the first time in a private academy where we both taught.He was smart and handsome, still I had no intention of marrying him. But over time, he became a good friend and we fell in love. Within a year of marriage we become a parent a beautiful baby girl, and three years later an equally precious son, she said.
Saadia told ‘’I quit my job and settled happily into life looking after our family and home, which was everything to me. In 2001 ‘’Aziz went to London for three weeks hostile training for media on the frontline. When he returned, she added. Reuters suddenly assigned him to Afghanistan in anticipation of a US attack. I was so relieved when it was cancelled; we returned from Turkham, a town on the Pakistani-Afghan border, but just a month later the US did attack and took the Afghan capital Kabul, and my husband prepared along with his journalist friends from all over Pakistan to go to war.‘’I was terrified for him. I knew that there was no safe place where they were going, for him or anyone else. I tried to talk him out of accepting the assignment, but his bureau chief threatened to sack him unless he agreed to go. He left with a heavy heart. Before he went, he looked unusually tired and my intuition indicated that something bad was going to happen.‘’He left Pakistan on 17 November 2001 and arrived in the Jalalabad province of Afghanistan the following day. Journalists across the world were gathered in the same hotel where my husband was staying with his friends and colleagues. They planned to go to Tora Bora but fighting between NATO and the Taliban had already begun there.’’They changed their plan and travelled towards Kabul. On the morning of 19 November 2001, a 28-car convoy of journalists moved out from Jalalabad to Kabul, a distance of 67 miles. After two hours the convey slowed through Aba-e- tung Rashum, a narrow pass where only one car could pass as a time and blind turns made the road treacherous, she explained. Furthermore she said suddenly the three cars heading the convoy, isolated from the others behind them by the narrow road, and was stopped by eleven armed men recognizable as Taliban despite their faces being covered with turbans. Three years later in court, Raza Khan, a man later convicted as one of the murderers, described the terrible order of events that followed, she said .Saadid said that my husband and three other foreign journalists – one Spanish man, one Australian and one female Italian were ambushed. ‘’ Taliban commander, disturbed by the Spanish man’s shouting, first ordered Raza Khan to shoot him on the spot. My husband begged in his own language for mercy, to no avail, she stated .Saadia told that’’ the female journalist was raped and had her legs broken before she too was killed; all four were physically tortured prior to death.’’ My husband was singled out as the only Muslim in the group, before being killed by the commander ‘she said..Khan was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. The murderers turned out to be a group working for the Taliban.
Saadia told this correspondent that ‘’when I found out the news, I ran to my parents’ house with my children, crying, ‘my father opened the door and fell down with a heart attack on hearing the news.’’ We were utterly broken by it she said. ‘I was so angry at the Taliban for killing these people like animals. I thought after my husband’s death that I wouldn’t be able to live without him.I didn’t talk about it to my children, I never did. Eight years on though, they know now that their father was. ‘The Reuters offered me a job in their office and I joined them because I used to visit there to see my husband – it allowed me to feel close to him. I felt that he was with me and would be coming back soon. After starting my journalism career at Reuters, I demanded that they give me my husband’s old position. They refused, saying senior Pakistani photographers were never women. They told me I would not be able to go in the field or write a story, and said I should stay at home instead she stated
‘’After one and half years I quit and joined Visual News as a reporter and photojournalist, a role I eventually held for six years. The boss of this association was my husband’s friend, who had supported my professional development. I accepted this profession for my beloved Aziz. I wanted to fulfill his mission and keep his name alive as long as I live. ‘I was in fact a good photographer before, a skill inherited from my uncles and grandfather – M. Bhatti, a famous Pakistani photographer himself. But by taking up this role, I became Pakistan’s first employed female photojournalist. To a question about criticism, she said ‘’ Of course, I got a lot of criticism from male colleagues and still do to this day, but I accept the challenges for my husband.‘’As part of my job I travel a lot all over the country; my parents kindly look after my children whenever I am away. I finished my masters in mass communication and am now a successful journalist, feature writer and video journalist as well as photographer. Talking about she said that ‘’my children are good and hardworking, and help me all the time despite my frequent absences from their lives. I think they know that I have sacrificed my life for them and their beloved father’’she added. This proud for me that I am the first female photojournalist in Pakistan a got award on international level. Saadia said ”i am dedicated this international awards to my shaheed< martyred> husband”.
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