Twenty-one-year-old Humaira Mohammad from the frontier district of Kupwara choose to listen to her heart and passion and turned critics into admirers by making a name for herself in power-lifting.  

Hailing from ITI colony Handwara in North Kashmir's Kupwara district the 21-year-old is currently pursuing her intermediate education from Higher Secondary Handwara and is a young professional powerlifter in north Kashmir.

“A year back, I weighed 70 KGs, unusual for my age group. To overcome this issue, I went to a gym located at my native place in Handwara,” Humaira told Rising Kashmir.

She says it was after regular workouts at the gym she realized her potential for lifting weights.

 “Soon after seeing potential in me for weight lifting, gym coach Tabish Ramzan motivated me to participate in the competition,” she says.

She says after being convinced by the coach, she participated in the North Kashmir Deadlift Championship and bagged the gold medal, and remained overall runner-up in the open category in the competition.

She says initially she was criticized for choosing power-lifting as a sport.

“Initially, I was criticized a lot but after proving my mettle at different arenas my critics became numb, eventually turned towards my supporters,” she says.

 She says her family supported her through thick and thin in her powerlifting career.

 “Whenever I felt low my parents would boost my confidence. I will never give up my dream of becoming an international power-lifter besides my medical studies,” she says.

Talking about her achievement, young Humaira says that she was titled three times Miss North Kashmir from March 2022 to June 2022 in different competitions.

“In July 2022, I was also titled “Power woman of Kupwara” and remained runner up in Miss Kashmir competition held in December 2021,” she claims.

She claims she remained runner-up in the 6^th Kashmir power-lifting bench press and dead-lift championship held indoor hall Polo-ground Srinagar in August 2022.

“I bagged three gold medals in U53kg weight category in World Raw power-lifting Federation (WRPF) held at Gindun Stadium Rajbagh in August 2022,” she says.

In September 2022, she bagged gold in Deadlift and gold in powerlifting in J&K UT State Power-lifting and Deadlift Championship in the under 63 kg (sub-junior) weight category and was awarded the title of best Power-lifter of Jammu and Kashmir held in Indoor stadium Jammu.  

“I am training for the national Power-lifting championship to be organized by Power-lifting India Association (PIA),” she says.

She has been good at studies since childhood and wants to become a radiologist and open her own clinic to serve people.  

She extends gratitude to Mohsin Rashid (Mr Kashmir 2016, 2017, 2018) for being her counselor. Humaira credits her success to her parents and coach Tabish for guidance and training.