JHELUM, Pakistan: Kishmala Talat, slowing her breathing and focusing on the target of her pistol, hopes to become the first Pakistani woman to win an Olympic medal.
At the Paris Olympics, which begin on July 26, Talat will compete in the 10-meter air pistol and 25-meter pistol, fighting for fame abroad and breaking stereotypes at home.
Pakistan’s medal chances are undermined by modesty codes that discourage women from participating in sports.
Talat, 21, who comes from a military family, is the first Pakistani woman to qualify for Olympic shooting.
“There is a common taboo in Pakistan that tells girls to stay at home, do girly things and play with dolls, and for boys to play with guns,” she said.
“I don’t see anyone as competition. I compete with myself,” she told AFP at a shooting range in the eastern city of Jhelum.
Talat has won dozens of medals at the national level and four internationally, including Pakistan’s first-ever shooting medal – a bronze – at the Asian Games last year.
Pakistan has won only 10 Olympic medals – all in men’s hands – and none since the 1992 Games.
Talat, who has just completed her university studies in social communications, will realistically face a difficult task in standing on the podium in Paris.
According to the International Shooting Sport Federation, he is ranked 37th in the world in the 10 m race and 41st in the 25 m race.
“I wanted recognition. I wanted to do more,” she said.
“I wanted whenever the shooting was mentioned or ‘Kishmala’ was mentioned, it would be associated with someone who did something great for Pakistan.”
Hoping to beat the odds, he spends 10 hours a day training – an hour of physical exercise, followed by four hours on the 10m and 25m shooting ranges.
The last hour of the evening is spent in meditation, focusing on the flickering flame of a candle, trying to perfect the zen needed to find purpose.
“I want to give my best to make Pakistan’s name shine,” Talat said.
She takes photos with a spare hand in her pocket, one eye covered by specially fitted glasses, and her face is set in expressionless concentration.
Sport shooting is not a popular sport in Pakistan.
Cricket is by far the most popular pastime, but all sports suffer from chronic underfunding.
However, firearms are ubiquitous in Pakistan.
In 2017, the Swiss weapons research group Small Arms Survey estimated that civilians in Pakistan possessed almost 44 million legal or illegal weapons.
This number is the fourth highest in the world and means that there are 22 weapons for every hundred citizens in a country of over 240 million people.
Talat’s talent was developed by the Pakistan Army, the sixth largest army in the world, with a huge budget to run ski resorts, polo fields and climbing academies.
Talat is trained by officers and a foreign trainer at a military facility in Jhelam, known as the “City of Martyrs” because of its strong links with the armed forces.
He comes from the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where the headquarters of the armed forces are located.
Her 53-year-old mother, Samina Yaqoob, serves as a major in the Army Nursing Service and proudly displays her daughter’s numerous medals in the family living room.
Yaqoob once dreamed of competing herself.
“I got married and I am busy with this life, but I am happy when I see my daughter realizing my dream,” she said.
“Girls should step forward, observe, work diligently, and their parents should support them,” the mother said.
“She believes she can do anything. That’s just the way she is.”