The qualms of her crippling disease and resolute fight against it, she can talk about both in the same breath. It is hope that dictates her tone in it, however. She can talk for hours about her condition — muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder characterised by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness — that has confined her to wheelchair.


FOR A CAUSE: Nawal with bodybuilders from Supplement House supporting her cause.

And she can talk in even greater detail on how she has been subsuming it with an active lifestyle. When you see Nawal Mohamed Akram, a Pakistani expatriate, putting on the mantle of a standup comedian or posing for cameras in her designer clothes for a fashion shoot, you know she is not just talk. Nawal means business.
She has been part of a team of standup comedians in town, done modelling for a Qatari fashion brand — the first physically challenged girl to do so — acted in a short film made on her life, and is training to participate in Paralympics soon.



WORD OUT! The country’s influencers and bloggers also help spread the word.

And it does not end here. She has initiated her own organisation, Muscular Dystrophy (MD) Qatar, to find a support system for people going through the same problem. Nawal knows there are many in Qatar like her but they are not coming out in the open for some reason. And she wants to inspire them.  
“I was not good at acting initially,” she smiles. “But now I am getting a hang of it,” Nawal says as she shares acting and modelling experiences with Community in a recent interview. It was a film about being imperfectly perfect and she perfectly enjoyed it. She loved modelling as it showed the “diversity of beauty.”
And Nawal believes while she is getting into such activities to remain active, she is also doing it for a bigger cause.
“Keeping silent and inactive about your condition is not a good idea. There are many like me in Qatar, but they are not coming out of their homes over certain fears. And this will not help as being active and social is your best chance to fight this problem,” reasons Nawal.
Roving around in her electric wheelchair, she spends a busy day. She holds meetings with people, engaging them with her MD Qatar initiative, through social media. She does her training in sports and spends time with friends and family, participating in different activities.  
“Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. If you are doing the correct thing, you should not be afraid of it just because there are negative people around you. Otherwise, there will be no way to solve the problem. And the biggest problem is that people do not reach out for help,” concludes Nawal.
Through MD Qatar, which she is trying to get registered, she plans to provide a support system that people with MDM can reach out to and find help. Besides, she wants to use it to create awareness and encourage research into finding a cure for the disease which is yet not curable.
“For years, I have been trying to find if there is any organisation that helps or supports people with MDM. I didn’t see anyone do it. Some parents were doing it but not a community or organisation,” explains Nawal.
She wanted to have a community together where people, teenagers and others, who have MDM, talk to each other and look for a support system.
For now, she is focusing on raising awareness about the disease and how to fight it through social media initiatives by engaging influencers and bloggers. Recently, a bodybuilding team from ‘Supplement House’ supported her cause. Four Seasons helped through a tribute video. Many Qatari multinational bloggers that are known in social media are also coming forward to assist her.
Her personal life goal and aim is to create charities that financially fund people with muscular dystrophy for their medical bills “because not everyone can afford it.”
“There are a lot of medical bills if they are on wheelchairs or have breathing problems and then medicines, it is really expensive at times. And with having a disability, depression does come along,” elaborates Nawal.
Disability can happen to anyone at any time and when it does suddenly happen, like it did in my case, I did not know what to do. I was so confused and a lot of people go through that emotion where it does lead to depression.
There may be other people around who may be going through the same problem, but they just feel alone about it and they don’t know where to look. Recalling her own experience, she says the only support system that she could look to was her family, and her mother.
She made Nawal realise that it is not her fault, it is just life. “It is not going to be easy, but it is worth living through. She made me believe in fighting and getting myself through it. You never know who is looking up to you in that moment and learning from your strength,” she recalls.
Through MD Qatar, she aims to create awareness about the disease and also to encourage further research on muscular dystrophy in Qatar.  
For now, people with MDM can only get through by remaining active and healthy by watching their weight.
“It is not hard to eat healthy, but to maintain a good weight is difficult especially when you cannot be as active as other people are,” says Nawal.
Through her initiative, she also wants to create awareness that if you have the power to move your muscles, do it.
“I have been on wheelchair and what I realise is that more of it comes on a mental level. If I kept thinking, oh, I cannot go out, I cannot do this or do that, I would not have been at a stage (where) I am today. I took risks which did make me feel uncomfortable at first, but it just let me make myself into a new person,” says Nawal.
In the long term, this disease affects every muscle in your body, your lungs and heart, except your brain, she adds. So in a way you are brain is alive, but your body starts dying.
“I think we are living in a generation where we have the knowledge and we have the funds, so why not do research on it and create medicine to help the people affected by this disease to live long, be active and enjoy their lives like others do,” she suggests.