A 19-year old UC Berkeley student was among those killed last week when a plane crashed in the hills around Islamabad, according to news reports.
Misha Dawood, a sophomore, a member of the crew team, and a rising soccer star, died Wednesday when an Airbus crash killed 152 people, making it Pakistan’s worst air disaster.
Dawood, a member of the Diya Football Club, was on her way to the sixth annual National Women’s Football Championship in Islamabad when the plane crashed.
The Diya soccer team won its games on Thursday and dedicated the victory to Dawood. The two teams also led five minutes of silence before the match for Dawood.
Dawood was actually not supposed to go to Islamabad for the championship, according to Pakistani news reports. She was scheduled to be in the U.S. with her parents and siblings.
“Misha was a talented footballer who wanted very much to take part in the championship,” said Rubina Irfan, the chairperson of the women’s wing of Pakistan Football Federation. “Misha had a flair for this game and loved it very much. This tragedy has put us all in the most painful position.”
“Misha was a future star of Pakistan and one can judge this from her passion for the game. She was studying abroad and yet she wanted to help her team win the championship.”
Daewood was active in UC Berkeley Pakistani Student Association and intended to major in geography, according to the Daily Californian. She joined the light-weight crew team in the middle of the year and practiced yoga daily.
