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takes place in July, with the aim to accept and honour uniqueness and to promote visibility and mainstream awareness of the positive pride felt by people with disabilities.

To celebrate Disability Pride Month this year, meet Uzair Ibrahim, a Farhad Daftary Doctoral Scholar in Arab and Islamic Studies at the and a former Research Assistant in our South Asian Studies Unit. His work focuses on Shi鈥檌 Islam, intellectual history and South Asian Studies, drawing from the fields of literature, history, and critical theory. He has a particular interest in the world of the jinn and how we make sense of that which we cannot see, a subject he believes he is drawn to because he has experienced the world from a different perspective from others.

Experiencing different cities

Uzair grew up in Karachi and came to the 亚洲无码 in 2018 on the GPISH programme. He had previously spent a semester in Albuquerque, New Mexico as an undergraduate and found his move to the UK smooth, in part because he was comfortable with living independently having lived in the US.

鈥淚 found that getting around was much easier than I was used to. In Karachi and more broadly in Pakistan it can be inaccessible, so I have had to plan in minute detail where I wanted to go. In London these layers of forward planning are removed, though I sometimes turn up to the station and find a lift isn鈥檛 working. When that happens, there is information and staff to help so I can find another route.

鈥淚 also know I was lucky to be a student in accommodation in a part of town that has been recently renovated. Step free access can depend on the postcode you are in, but I also think that if you are born with a disability and live with it all your life, you figure out how to get around wherever you are in the world.鈥�

Asked about managing bumps in the road, Uzair is sanguine: 鈥淵es, there are times when you do everything you need to do to ensure access, but others can simply misunderstand. For example, I recently went to a summer school. I spoke with the hosts in advance, and they were very helpful. They asked the hotel to book a taxi from the airport with extra room for my chair, but when it arrived it was big but not accessible. So yes, there are frustrations.

鈥淓very Friday I go to the Ismaili Centre across London to pray. I know the route I use is accessible. A few months ago, on my way back, one of the lifts at the station was broken 鈥� it was working just two hours before when I鈥檇 used it on my outbound journey. I had to take another train north and come back into the station on a different underground line to use a different lift.鈥�

A different perspective

When it comes to his research, Uzair believes he has unique perspectives to offer: 鈥淢y experiences are not the same as most people鈥檚, even if we are experiencing the same thing, and this has been the way all my life. Even two people with disabilities will not have the same experience. Sometimes I can come up with solutions or ideas that others wouldn鈥檛 because I don鈥檛 have to think the same way they think. In that sense it has been a blessing because, in most cases, I鈥檓 not conditioned to think as other people are.

鈥淗onestly, most people see life a certain way. A lot of scholarship looks at Islam in a certain way, and I know that it can be read in different ways. I like to think as creatively as possible.

鈥淲ith my research on the jinn, I鈥檓 looking at things that cannot be seen. I鈥檓 not saying that I can see the unseen, but I have experience of looking at things that other people cannot or do not. In that sense I am well placed to think beyond the usual tropes of superstition and irrationality regarding how people interact with and make sense of the jinn.鈥�

How society can be more supportive

We asked Uzair Ibrahim how we can be more supportive of people with disabilities, and he circles back to the uniqueness of individuals: 鈥淲hen I was born, one of the doctors told my mother, that though I might not be able to walk, apart from that I鈥檓 like anyone else. That stuck with my mother and it鈥檚 how I鈥檝e gone through life. I went to a school with able bodied children, and to university too. I鈥檝e lived in four countries (two of these because of GPISH) as a person with disability and absorbed aspects of different cultures. So in this sense I am a unique person to some extent, but in other ways I am like others, and I like to be treated as such. 聽

鈥淪ome people try to help me with things I am comfortable doing on my own. I try to address this with people directly when it does happen and let them know I can ask for help if I need it.

鈥淧eople tend to make assumptions. Often people are either excessively positive and think: 鈥極h wow, look at how well he鈥檚 doing鈥�, or they can be excessively negative: 鈥極h poor him.鈥� But neither of these cases are people looking at me as an equal and if you can鈥檛 look at me as an equal then we can鈥檛 have a genuine relationship.鈥�

This sums up Uzair鈥檚 approach to people. It鈥檚 appreciating their uniqueness that will help us work as a society to overcome misconceptions and prejudice. If we can take everyone as an individual and just listen. 鈥淭his applies whether or not someone has a disability. I don鈥檛 want to advocate for an excessive individualism, but if we can create a society where everyone can live together, can listen to each other. That should not be too difficult to do.鈥�