Samina Baig, first Pakistani woman to summit Mount Everest. The 25-year-old faced many problems like cold, hunger and tiredness. While Samina Baig was climbing the Everest, she had only one thought in her mind. i.e. “I have to reach the top and I was very clear about that.” It was a dream for every mountaineering aficionado, reaching the summit of Everest, the world’s highest mountain at 29,029 feet.

Baig is from a remote village Shimshal in Pakistan’s Upper Hunza Valley. As the first Pakistani female to reach the top of Everest, she would be sending a message to fellow citizens in a country often criticized for its subjugation of women. and where, in the most commonly known example, Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban extremists in 2012 for demanding that girls be allowed to receive an education.

Baig said that her dream is to change the lives of women in her country. “On Mount Everest, I was not Samina Baig,” said the mountaineer whose home region is known for its high literacy rate, tolerance and gender equality. “I was representing Pakistani women. I was thinking that if I don’t make it, how am I going to encourage other women? I had to do it.” Baig climbed fewer than 400 women across the globe.

Since she climbed Everest, Baig has climbed to the top of the highest mountains on the five other continents: Denali in Alaska, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Elbrus in Russia, Aconcagua in Argentina and Vinson in Antarctica, and Carstensz Pyramid in Oceania. “I want to tell the women in Pakistan that if I am from Pakistan and I can climb mountains, they can climb their own mountains because everyone has their own mountains in their lives,” Baig said during a recent visit to California.

“They can work hard, they can overcome their challenges and they can reach their goals.” Baig’s family used firewood for cooking and heating. But Baig’s parents, a farmer and a homemaker, ensured that all their four sons and two daughters went to school. Baig’s first conquest was Chashkin Sar, a nearly 21,000-foot mountain near her village. Thus, the community renamed the mountain as ‘Samina’s Peak’.

“For those who think that women in Pakistan are always oppressed, that they don’t have an opportunity. (Samina) is just one example,” Mirza Ali Baig said.