Italy Shipwreck Kills Soccer Player from Pakistan

Shahida Raza played on Pakistan’s national soccer and field hockey teams, but her athletic prowess did not make her rich or allow her emigrate to Europe legally.

That helps explain why Ms. Raza, a mother of one, was traveling to Italy from Turkey last month on a boat with other economic migrants from Central Asia. Ms. Raza, 29, was one of at least 63 people who died when rough seas dashed the boat against rocks about a hundred yards from the Italian shore — agonizingly close to the land where she had hoped to start a new life.

Ms. Raza had left her 3-year old son, who is partly paralyzed, with her ex-husband in Pakistan before starting her dangerous journey. But her family and friends say her plan was to eventually settle the boy in Italy, where she hoped he would receive better medical treatment.

“She was deeply concerned about his health and wanted him to have a normal life,” Saba Khanum, one of her longtime soccer and field hockey teammates, said in an interview.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/04/world/europe/shahida-raza-pakistani-soccer-shipwreck-italy.html