Lahore's daredevil 12-year-old girl surviving ‘well of death’

Fatima says she is playing a 'son' for her poor father; insists life and death are in God's hands

LAHORE:

As she straddles her motorcycle to race around the “well of death” with spectators lining the edges above, she defies gravity as well as social norms inked by men far more advanced in years than her.

Fatima Noora, 12, rides her vehicle around the nearly-vertical walls several times a day at speeds fast enough for centrifugal force to take over.

Her father, cautiously perched behind on the passenger’s seat otherwise reserved for women, takes flight to the seventh heaven. As the shades of evening draw on, her motorcycle emerges out of the jaws of death with an air of doggedness amid the plumes of dust and a pulsating crowd. But Fatima's dazzling speed is competing against the clock of her young body.

Barely a teen, the daredevil girl only snapped fingers at fate, refusing to dance to the music of her family’s poverty when she overheard her distressed father complaining about not having any son to assume the role of a breadwinner. Munir Ahmad, now a proud father, tells The Express Tribune what kindled the veins of a hero in his daughter: “Like other fathers, I wanted my daughter to go to school and complete education.

But as it soon became obvious that reading and writing was against her athletic dispositions, we made sure Fatima at least completed Holy Quran.” However, as years passed by, the poor father’s woes got worse. To stand by and witness his family’s hardships, and not dare to remonstrate, was testing his patience.

And then one day, passing through the school of affliction, Ahmad’s long-suppressed wish, carefully clasped to his breasts for years, accidentally escaped his lips: “I wish I had a son who could share my burden and become the breadwinner for us. ”Since that day, Fatima Noor took on the role of a ‘son’.

Though courage and strength are not strictly masculine virtues, the ambitious girl has pushed boundaries. She echoes his father: “I learned to ride a motorcycle at the age of seven. Papa used to send me to school, but I never liked it.

I don’t have any brothers, only a younger sister. So, I wanted to do all the things that a son does. ”She recalls seeing her father driving around the “well of death”, struggling to make ends meet alone.

Darker side

Like countless other households pressed harder against the wall by the oppressive realities of poverty, Munir Ahmad’s family has been thrown into the throes of survivalist mode.

Forced to choose between the pangs of empty stomachs and the safe environment of a school, the family allowed Fatima to play the dangerous game.

However, her passion for the work is followed by its darker twins – an exposure to a world she is too young for and the serious dangers that trail behind her motorcycle. She's always on the edge.

“But life and death are in the hands of Allah and I am not afraid at all,” Fatima insists.Ahmad hopes that one day her daughter will make a name not only for herself and her family but also for Pakistan.

“She will be the first young girl to do such a dangerous stunt,” he says conviction.