Arfa Karim, The Little Pakistani Genius

Arfa Karim, The Little Pakistani Genius

Born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, the little Arfa Karim was only 5 when she first came across these strange white "boxes" in her school which later she knew were computers. "When you push a button, something magically appears on the box" said Arfa.

After she persuaded her father to buy her one, Amjad Karim –who serves with a U.N. peace making force in Africa, began to notice his young daughter's extraordinary "technical" talent, that's when he convinced APTECH –an advanced computer institute near their home- to enroll her as a student for she was still too young to apply.

In 2005, the people at the institute amazed with her unique aptitude, informed her father that Arfa might actually be in a position to seek Microsoft certification; and after only four months of hard work and dedicated study –over summer- the little girl genius passed the exam for developing Windows applications! A process that would've normally taken a year to accomplish.
Being the youngest person to ever obtain this certification –Arfa was certified at only 9 years of age- she got the chance to fly to the USA and meet Mr. Gates himself.

Arfa took the Microsoft people there by surprise with her wit, intelligence, and even audacity.

During her one-on-one with Bill Gates, she talked about lots of things, asked him many questions, such as why there weren't much women working at the company, she thought the number of male and female employees should be equaled , she also asked him why they wouldn't hire someone her age. She also made no secret she was surprised with the dress code there as she thought they'd all be in suits, and dropped the bare truth that meeting Gates fallen only second to Disneyland on her list of the things she wanted to see in America.

Following that encounter, Arfa was regarded as a celebrity in Pakistan and was held as an icon and a role model! Pakistanis celebrated her everywhere, and took pride of her.

Arfa expressed her dream of going to Harvard University or MIT to complete her studies in order to become a developer or a satellite engineer.

Unfortunately, the little genius won't be able to fulfill her dream, for Arfa Karim, Pakistan's pride, died at the tender age of 16 after an epileptic seizure that left her in a coma back in December, and eventually led to a cardiac arrest in early January that sent her soul to heavens.

Arfa karim may be gone, but never forgotten. May god rest her soul!