Pakistani engineer overcame racism, sexism, language barrier in Hong Kong to succeed in STEM – and wants to help others like her do the same

When it comes to higher education, the odds are stacked against members of ethnic minority groups, especially ones who are women, Rabia Aslam found

That she was able to overcome these barriers as a newcomer to the city who learned Chinese in less than a year is all the more remarkable

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City University graduate Rabia Aslam overcame adversity in many forms on her way to succeeding in a STEM field. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 10:00am, 11 Jul 2021Updated: 12:29am, 20 May 2023

Rabia Aslam still remembers how she felt when she walked into her university’s orientation for biomedical engineering students four years ago.

The Pakistan-born 24-year-old recalled looking around at the faces of her classmates, wondering how many would come from ethnic minority backgrounds like herself. To her surprise, she was the only local student who was not Chinese, and the men in the class far outnumbered the women.

“I felt shocked and sad,” she recalled.

It was not the first shock Aslam had experienced as a member of an ethnic minority group in Hong Kong, where she faced both outright racism and the insidious discrimination of diminished expectations. These difficulties, she found, were only compounded by her gender and her status as a newcomer to the city, making her success in a STEM field all the more remarkable – and something she now hopes to help other young girls replicate.

Born and raised in Lahore, Aslam came to Hong Kong with her parents and her younger brother and sister in 2014 after her father, a businessman, landed a job in the city.