Her answer to this complicated question was," I only thought it would be fun to be a foreign correspondent and have some adventure to write."
Christina Lamb OBE, born on 15 May 1965, loved to write and wanted to be a poet or novelist. She was the one to interview Benazir Bhutto(in 1987) who was living in exile in London in Barbican Center. Surprisingly, at that time Christina Lamb was an intern with 'Financial Times'. It was the day Benazir Bhutto announced her engagement with Asif Zardari and her house was full of flowers & bouquets.
After a few months, Benazir Bhutto invited Christina Lamb to attend her wedding in Karachi. The wedding went on for almost 10 days and to her it was a great introduction to Pakistan and its culture. She decided to live in Pakistan. But on the contrary to her thought, her foreign editors wanted her to be in Afghanistan, not Pakistan.
Now that she had landed in Pakistan, met people whose real-life stories attracted her a lot, she ended up being a foreign correspondent for 'The Sunday Times'. She decided to live in Peshawar and started to travel along with Mujahidins fighting the Soviets. This is where she realized that real-life stories are far more interesting and should be told to the entire world in a befitting manner.
Where Christina made the difference
Earlier the war correspondents were only males until Christina changed it all for men to seriously ponder upon the lost ground. She says both men & women report differently. Like male war-correspondents do not find women in war as worth reporting.
Their (women) struggle in the war-stricken situation; how to keep life together, feed, educate and shelter their children, was phenomenal. In a war, where blood takes the toll, she preferred bringing forward the tears and the plight of the people caught in this situation.
She was the first woman to obtain access to interrogations of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the mastermind of 9/11.
She was the one to go undercover to expose Mugabe's rape camps in Zimbabwe and search for the lost tribes in uncharted regions of the Amazon.
She is an inspirational speaker and women's magazine 'Grazia' named her one of the icons of the decade.
She was in Benazir Bhutto's bus when it was blown up in Oct 2007.
She was ambushed by the Taliban, abducted by Pakistan's ISI, and narrowly escaped suicide bombs of Hotel.
She inspired the character 'Esther' in the novel ' The Zahir(2005)' written by Paulo Coelho.
A flurry of Awards
She won the ' Young Journalist of the Year ' award in 1988 in British Press awards when she was just 24. Having fifteen awards in journalism, six book awards, and other awards to her credit, she is naive enough and good at her daring journalism. In 2013 she was awarded an OBE by Queen for services in Journalism i.e Dame Commander of the Order Of British Empire.
Her Books
I am Malala, an account of the life of the main author Malala Yousufzai has been translated into 40 languages, and has sold close to 2 million copies worldwide.
Her book Nujeen: One Girl's Incredible Journey from war-torn Syria in a wheel-chair co-written with Nujeen Mustafa was published by William Collins (London) in Sept 2016 and was translated into 9 languages.
She has many more books to her credit. See the list & read.
Conclusion
According to her the experience of being a foreign correspondent has changed a lot over the years and technology has made it much easier and at the same time dangerous too. But why someone would choose to be a war correspondent in the first place, be in the frontline to take the onslaught. Christina Lamb doesn't appear to be rough. Going by her work in journalism, she has proven that she is a tough woman. On being asked about her favorite place, Afganistan figured in her list, the country she found endlessly fascinating, and where she started as a foreign correspondent. Rio topped the list where she spent four wonderful years in her 20'.
She is an inspiration to millions of women who restrict themselves to household chores and underestimate their potential. Well, Christina Lab is still pursuing her passions elegantly with absolute dignity like the ' Dame Commander of the Order Of British Empire '.
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