Saleema Rehman

Rehman is of Afghan Turkmen ethnicity, and was born in 1991 or 1992 in a refugee camp in Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan after her parents had fled from Afghanistan in 1979 during the Soviet–Afghan War.

[2][3] Rehman's first post was at the Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi, where her patients included both refugees and local residents.

During her training the hospital became a COVID-19 response centre and she was working with women who were giving birth while suffering from Covid.

After qualification she had further difficulties in getting a licence to practice, because of her refugee status, but she was finally able to open a private clinic in Attock in June 2021.

[3][1][4] In January 2022 she was one of the speakers at a United Nations web event launching humanitarian appeals for Afghanistan and its region, along with Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.