User:MF-vista

Mariam H. Fardus (مريم فردوس) (born c. 1984) the first Arab woman and the third woman worldwide to dive in the North Pole She is a Saudi Physician who graduated from King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah in 2008, and has since obtained a Master’s specializations in Epidemiology from King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in Riyadh. She is also passionate about global volunteering as she is an ambassador in many international organization as African Impacts to help African kids and Women as well Seeds of Humanity to help refugees in Greece.

Early life
Mariam is the third of her family was born in Makkah, Saudi Arabia to Hamed Fardous. She is a physician with passion for scuba diving as a hobby. Taking a scholarship in a foreign country did not stop her from learning new sports such as archery, horseback riding, paragliding and hiking; recently she returned from her trekking to Everest Base Camp to where she attend the course of mountain medicine course in Nepal. She comes from a somewhat traditional family in Saudi Arabia, which according to the Human Rights Watch, even after the historic decree of King Salman, Saudi Arabia’s remain in place, preventing women from fully accessing the education and health benefits of sports exercise.!"

Diving in North Pole
Ice diving is dangerous enough but Mariam wanted to push her boundaries beyond the warmth of the Red Sea to the edge of the world. She first set out to the Arctic Circle Dive Center (ACDC) in Russia in 2015 as a stepping stone for her next journey to the North Pole the following year.

Mariam trained hard in her quest for the North Pole Expedition in the ACDC which is the only center operated the first drift ice dive center at the North Pole in human history, making it possible to carry out a series of ice dives without the participants having to return to a base camp Barneo every day.

She was joined by 1 other diver “Hussam Shurki” the first Saudi man to attempt diving in North Pole and 2 guiders in reaching the Geographic North Pole. Diving in North Pole requires at least 20 dry suit dives that is taught in cold water over the world. There are other requirements for this expedition financial costs, physical fitness, medical insurance and safety measures.

Speaking about her achievement, she said: "I’m really so proud of my achievement as it has helped me, and other women, to believe in themselves. In my culture, women are under pressure that leads to them underestimating themselves. So as a Saudi Female to go from the extreme hot climate to the extreme polar climate, I think this will help women, especially in my society, to trust their abilities and hopefully inspire the next generation to think out of the box and remove all their life obstacles”