ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s first female fighter pilot, Marium Mukhtiar, was remembered on her fifth martyrdom anniversary on Tuesday. 24-year-old Mukhtiar, a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Flying Officer, became the first female pilot to have died on a mission when an air force’s trainer jet crashed near Kundian, Mianwali in 2015. She was among 21 female fighter pilots in the air force, which only began inducting women in combat roles in 2006, a New York Times report said at the time. In a 2014 interview with BBC, Mukhtiar talked about the challenges of being a female pilot in a male-dominated environment. It is unclear how many women have joined the air force as fighter pilots since then.

Source: Pakistan Today November 24, 2020 10:29 UTC