Pakistani student bags top position in Commonwealth essay competition

Bringing laurels to the nation, a young Pakistani student named Zahra Hussain has won the British Royal Commonwealth Society’s essay competition for her short story.

Zahra's story, named 'Hues of Red', tackles child marriage and domestic violence in South Asia. It acts as a beacon of hope for the younger generation and imparts social awareness on these issues.

A student of Lahore Grammar School International, Zahra, received rave reviews from the jury for her award-winning story that has earned her top prize in the competition.

Receiving the news of her victory, Zahra expressed immense gratitude.

“I’m mostly in disbelief, because it’s such a huge honour, but once I get past that I think I’ll be incredibly excited,” she said.

Speaking about her passion for writing Zahra said, “Your writing style can be as diverse as you want it to be – it’s a very unique kind of freedom, and I absolutely adore it.”

Adding further, she said that winning the first prize in a competition with 12,000 other students was definitely a milestone achievement for her and she is extremely happy and content by the results.

The Royal Commonwealth Society, congratulating the budding writer in a Facebook post wrote:

“We are delighted to announce the Winners and Runners-Up of The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition 2018. Senior Winner Zahra Hussain, 17, is from Lahore, Pakistan and Senior Runner-Up Ng Woon Neng, 16, is from Singapore. Junior Winner Janine Shum, 13, is from Singapore and Junior Runner-Up Floria Gu, 13, is from Vancouver, Canada.”