Three Pakistani trailblazers have made it to the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list for 2021, including music producer Abdullah Siddiqui, artist Misha Japanwala, and the government’s product manager Hannia Zia.
Siddiqui took to Instagram to share the exciting news with fans and followers, saying, “Forbes 30 Under 30. I’m completely stunned and so incredibly grateful. To everyone who helped me get here, thank you.”
The 20-year-old Lahore native’s achievements in music were recognized by Forbes that wrote, “Siddiqui began producing English-language electronic music at the age of 11 and started releasing it as an independent artist when he was 16.”
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“He has written and produced music for some prominent singers in Pakistan, including Fawad Khan, Meesha Shafi, Shamoon Ismail, and Aima Baig,” they added.
Along with Siddiqui, the 25-year-old artist Misha Japanwala also made it to the list as a featured honoree in the arts category. As described by Forbes, “Japanwala is a visual artist and designer whose work addresses issues such as domestic violence and honor killings in Pakistan.”
Japanwala also collaborated with supermodel Gigi Hadid last year on a V Magazine issue that Hadid guest-edited.
“Another of Japanwala’s works, a collection of breastplates and other wearable body castings, was featured in a six-page spread in Vogue Spain in 2018, modeled by French model Cindy Bruna,” noted Forbes.
Hannia Zia, “Pakistani Government’s sole product manager of its pandemic tech response and one of the three founding members of the Prime Minister’s Office initiative Digital Pakistan,” is also featured on the list.
Zia’s achievements as the government’s product manager are staggering: “She launched a WhatsApp bot to spread Covid-19 awareness in seven local languages that has connected to 500,000 users and was endorsed by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, as well as a Covid-19 ringtone, which has been heard by 113 million Pakistanis.”
A psychology graduate from Yale and a former Google product manager, Zia is also the force behind the Health Ministry’s Facebook page, which she grew a “hundred-fold.” The page boasts a staggering 1.8 million followers under her command.
