The biggest degree I have is my upbringing: Sadia Imam

The former actor discusses her approach to parenting, and why wants to be present for her daughter.

For any woman with a career, motherhood is the ultimate fork in the road where a decision has to be made: to continue with work undeterred, or to take a step back to raise a child. Sadia Imam, a regular on television in the 2000s, chose the latter, and appeared on Pyara Mehman with nine-year-old daughter Meerab to chat with host Farhan Ali Waris about her time away from the screen.

“Raising Meerab is the biggest responsibility of my life,” stated the Hum Se Juda Na Hona star, who had always longed for a daughter. With a string of television and morning shows already behind her, Sadia stressed, “I now want to give her the proper time she deserves.”

Having fully embraced her role as a parent, the down-to-earth soft-spoken mother of one discussed in flawless Urdu how she has absorbed the lessons her own parents taught her to ensure her daughter will grow up with fond memories of a happy, healthy, safe childhood.

“I don’t have a degree,” she said unabashedly and unapologetically. “I have never tried to hide it. I don’t have a master’s or a PhD. The biggest degree I have is my own upbringing, but whatever I have learned and whatever manners or lessons I teach Meerab have come from our own families and cultures and traditions. It is our responsibility to transfer whatever we know to our children.”

A tradition from husband Adnan Haider’s family has been to learn and recite naats, and here, daughter Meerab showed how she has inherited her father’s genes by reciting a naat in a voice as clear as a bell, evoking tears from her awestruck mother next to her.

“I myself don’t have a voice for singing,” said the proud mother. “This is something Meerab has inherited from her father’s side of the family.”

Slowly, Sadia has encouraged Meerab to start fasting, a challenge the youngster has accepted with relish. Over the coming years, with Sadia focused solely on providing the best upbringing possible for her daughter, Meerab can move forward secure with the knowledge that her childhood will have been a place of nothing but the deepest love.

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