24-year-old Pakistani makes it to Time Magazine’s Woman of Year list

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Ayisha Siddiqa, a 24-year-old was named Time magazine's Woman of the Year.
Ayisha Siddiqa, a 24-year-old was named Time magazine's Woman of the Year.

Islamabad, 5 March 2023 (TDI): Ayisha Siddiqa, a 24-year-old was named Time magazine’s Woman of the Year. She was born in, Jhang (Punjab), Pakistan.

This Pakistani girl is the world’s leading climate change advocate. Ayisha became one of the world’s leading activists and voices on climate change in the United States (US).

She lost both her grandmother and her grandfather to cancer while growing up in Pakistan’s Jhang neighborhood along the Chenab River.

Her grandfather passed away in 2012 from blood cancer. She cited climate change as the cause of their demise and related it to the river’s dirty water.

As a climate justice advocate, she realized how unsafe the environment can be after witnessing illness and death from polluted river water in her community.

She moved to New York (Coney Island), continued her education, and is now one of the world’s leading climate change activists. She has been invited to speak and address climate change at the UN and all major international forums.

She has worked at the New York State Assembly and continues her work as a climate justice advocate while also serving as a fellow at the Climate Litigation Accelerator (CLX).

Siddiqa helped launch the Fossil Free University, an activism training course and co-founded Polluters Out, a global youth activist coalition, in 2020.

She is now working to help establish a youth climate justice fund to address the resource imbalance that activists have in comparison to the fossil fuel industry.

Climate change is a major issue for Pakistan. The weather in Pakistan is getting towards a more extreme level. The temperature is rising faster than expected, which is causing floods, major storms, and also longer and more frequent droughts.

In May 2022, a severe heatwave was recorded in Pakistan and India with temperatures reaching 51°C. Likewise, because of climate change, Pakistan experienced unprecedented monsoon floods leaving destruction in their wake.