Pakistan’s pride: Sharmeen Obaid, Malala congratulate Arooj Aftab on Grammy win

The singer is the first-ever Pakistani to have won the honour

Oscar-winner Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai congratulated Pakistan’s first-ever Grammy winner Arooj Aftab on her big achievement. The three of them have been making waves on the internet for making the nation proud every day with their talent in the international world.

Chinoy took to Instagram on Tuesday and posted an image of Aftab holding her Grammy trophy high in her hand. “This win means so much to so many people, Arooj,” wrote the filmmaker. “But most of all, you have made it possible for young brown women around the world to believe that they can be on that stage one day too.” The Mohabbat singer reposted the story and added fire emojis to Chinoy’s applaud on the widespread impact of her feat.

Malala also sent her best wishes to Aftab as she messaged her on Instagram. “Congratulations Arooj” read her message with hands-clapping emojis. Overjoyed by the message, the Mehram singer reposted that on her Instagram story and wrote, “We’re besties now, hey!”

The Brooklyn-based Pakistani vocalist on Sunday scored her first Grammy, winning a prestigious trophy for her song Mohabbat in the Best Global Performance category.

"I feel like this category in and of itself has been insane… it should be called the yacht party category,” Arooj said onstage at the 64th Grammy Awards. “I made [this record] about everything that broke me and put me back together. Thank you for listening to it and making it yours."

The 37-year-old -- who has lived in New York for some 15 years -- has been steadily gaining global attention for her work that fuses ancient Sufi traditions with inflexions of folk, jazz and minimalism.