Army Public School attack: Sofia Hijab (teacher) – Age 42
W/o Advocate Amjid Sohail
Children: Tatheer Zahra (17) Farwa Agha (13)
Qualification: Masters in IR (B.Ed ,M.Ed , Masters in Urdu (University of Peshawar)
Occupation: Urdu teacher (senior section)
Remembered by her daughters as their best friend, Sofia Hijab was a devoted mother and a hard-working teacher. She wanted her daughters to acquire good quality education and study medicine in order to become doctors.
She started teaching at the APS as a junior teacher barely two years ago but her dedication and hard work led to her promotion as a senior teacher within a short span of time. Her colleagues remember her as a hard-working woman who was also jolly and enjoyed having a laugh every now and then. She liked to keep people together and would arrange meet-ups and one dish parties for her colleagues.
Kind to her students, Sofia is remembered as soft-spoken but uncompromising when it came to academics. Often, she used to arrange debating competitions in the school and would help the students prepare for these.
Sofia’s husband recalls his wife’s love of taking holidays in various tourist spots, out of which Murree was her favourite. When it came to food, she enjoyed cooking and eating chicken biryani and fish the most and would cook various seafood dishes over the weekend for her family.
A devoted mother, Sofia’s older daughter Tatheer says she could not imagine that one day her mother would no longer be with them. The younger daughter Farwa also remains in a state of disbelief and misses her mother particularly when she goes to school in the morning.
Her husband says she was present in the auditorium while the attack was happening and had managed to come out of the premises safely. But that is when Sofia decided to go back for her students and pulled out many of those injured before the attackers saw and targeted her.