Suraya Akhter (b.17 July 1986 - d. 17 March 2009) was a fashion designing student who lost her life in a reckless accident in United Arab Emirates last year. The accident was due to combination of reckless driving and bad road design. Since the only witness (Suraya's friend Aysha involved in crash) was suffering from amnesia, the court of RAK had preposterously ruled that it was Suraya's mistake and she must have committed suicide. The investigation was halted but accounts of accidents by police did not add up. Her brother, Mohd Shahnawaz narrates the story of highlights of her life and that unfaithful day.
Suraya Akhter (b.17 July 1986 - d. 17 March 2009)
Suraya as a kid
"Suraya" is a Persian and Urdu word, in Arabic it's known as "Thuraya" and in English "Pleiades" meaning "cluster of seven stars" . She was light of our family and we were blessed to have someone like her. Suraya was a brilliant, ambitious and talented fashion designing student who enjoyed her life and loved her independence. She loved socializing with her friends, writing poetry, involving in creative work and most importantly fashion design. Through fashion she found an outlet to express her creativity on the things she cared and wanted to spread awareness through fashion. On her last fashion designing show, she used her creativity to raise awareness of animal cruelty. She designed clothes resembling animal bleeding and highlighted suffering of the animals. Me and my family attended the fashion show and we were proud of what she had accomplished. Below are some pictures of the fashion show taken sometime around February 2009.
She was an aspiring student of fashion design and was about to step into the real world. She already had a job lined up.
She did not want to go on summer vacation as she wanted to work and said "I will be here you go on vacation, Ma".
On March 17th, 2010 , she was on her way to last day of university. She hurriedly left on the morning with her friend, Aysha to the university. Two hours later, around noon time we got a call from emergency ward and asked us to get there ASAP. We rush to find her extremely distressed. She was murmuring “What happened to me?” and the doctor yelled “Keep your hands down. Suraya!”. The nurses of the hospital seemed amateurish and the doctor had less of experience to deal with trauma. Her friend Aysha suffered hip and leg injury.
Doctors mentioned she was internally bleeding and took her to ICU room. Expert doctors were called in and I saw them entering the room with encyclopedia. Two hours later I see surgeon coming out and I asked him “How is she doing?” He asked if I was her brother then lackadaisically said “She will not survive” and then walked away. An hour later she lost blood and the thing, we feared the most happened; she passed away on March 17, 2009 at 3:54 p.m.
She did not want to go on summer vacation as she wanted to work and said "I will be here you go on vacation, Ma".
On March 17th, 2010 , she was on her way to last day of university. She hurriedly left on the morning with her friend, Aysha to the university. Two hours later, around noon time we got a call from emergency ward and asked us to get there ASAP. We rush to find her extremely distressed. She was murmuring “What happened to me?” and the doctor yelled “Keep your hands down. Suraya!”. The nurses of the hospital seemed amateurish and the doctor had less of experience to deal with trauma. Her friend Aysha suffered hip and leg injury.
Doctors mentioned she was internally bleeding and took her to ICU room. Expert doctors were called in and I saw them entering the room with encyclopedia. Two hours later I see surgeon coming out and I asked him “How is she doing?” He asked if I was her brother then lackadaisically said “She will not survive” and then walked away. An hour later she lost blood and the thing, we feared the most happened; she passed away on March 17, 2009 at 3:54 p.m.
Suraya Akhter
The
police tried to make me sign a form to release the person involved in
accident who was of French origin from police station. The account on
how the accident took place was changed three times, the police then
found it easier to blame my dead sister stating she bizarrely changed
lanes from left high speed lane to right lane and then hit the tree, the
French guy then hit her from rear. I looked at the picture of my
sister's Benz and the rear side of the Benz was intact and there wasn’t any nick.
Her friend, Aysha who was the sole survivor of the incidence, refused
to recall anything and it has been more than a year still she doesn't.
The court did not analyze the evidence and depended solely on the
witness (Aysha) account who was suffering from amnesia. The court then bizarrely ruled that since my sister committed suicide, there would be no compensation. The French guy was then duly released after being imprisoned for 3 months.
The newspaper did not publish any news about her death, her university did not observe silence, neither did they recommend the students to drive safely. I later got to know the professor called my sister's friend, Aysha and he threatened to give her failing grades if she did not show up on time. I realized there were many things that went wrong that day and if any preventive measures would have been taken, my sister would have been alive today. Life went on, but those who cared for her asked "Why did it happen to us? What can we learn from this experience? How can we ensure that this does not happen to any one?"
The newspaper did not publish any news about her death, her university did not observe silence, neither did they recommend the students to drive safely. I later got to know the professor called my sister's friend, Aysha and he threatened to give her failing grades if she did not show up on time. I realized there were many things that went wrong that day and if any preventive measures would have been taken, my sister would have been alive today. Life went on, but those who cared for her asked "Why did it happen to us? What can we learn from this experience? How can we ensure that this does not happen to any one?"
I later found out that there were other causalities in that same road
which killed my sister and was appalled that it was still open. (Update April 2011 - a Russian lady lost her life in same u-turn). The
road was narrow two lane road which had u-turns I then campaigned to close the u-turn
by getting people to sign online petition, conducting scientific
survey (thanks to an English company, i4Research to help us out) and
meeting with authorities and they promised that those u-turns would be
closed soon (Update June 2012 - The u-turns are closed thanks to the authorities for listening to us!). I then turned my attention to ask why were reckless
accidents happening so often here? With the help of some researchers
we collected lots of data (40 hours) and in the end we compiled them
into information graphic "What is Killing in Gulf?" and then studied some successful campaigns
(campaigns with provable results) around the world. I thought of
starting the foundation later in life but reading almost everyday the
accounts of accidents, I felt the urge to do something about it and it
was time to act, I started the foundation on June 2010.
The Suraya Foundation has been formed to prevent accidents that can be averted by targeting drivers on psychological level. Since "Suraya" means "cluster of seven stars", we have adopted seven principles for our campaign to meet our objectives. The foundation has been formed to help ensure that you could be spared from the misery of suffering from the loss of a loved one. This foundation ensures that you and your loved ones are protected from reckless accidents' i.e. prevention of reckless accidents by changing attitudes of unsafe drivers and helping them adopt the principles of safe driving. - Mohd Shahnawaz
For archives on how this foundation began please go to www.ripsister.com. Please share with us your story and read other stories on how the road accident epidemic is damaging the lives of thousands around the world.
The Suraya Foundation has been formed to prevent accidents that can be averted by targeting drivers on psychological level. Since "Suraya" means "cluster of seven stars", we have adopted seven principles for our campaign to meet our objectives. The foundation has been formed to help ensure that you could be spared from the misery of suffering from the loss of a loved one. This foundation ensures that you and your loved ones are protected from reckless accidents' i.e. prevention of reckless accidents by changing attitudes of unsafe drivers and helping them adopt the principles of safe driving. - Mohd Shahnawaz
For archives on how this foundation began please go to www.ripsister.com. Please share with us your story and read other stories on how the road accident epidemic is damaging the lives of thousands around the world.
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