This is a sponsored article in partnership with the Royal Air Force…
Each of us has goals and ambitions we’d love to fulfil in our careers.
Whether it's promotions, leadership, or feeling like we’re making a difference in our community; we all want to be able to retire knowing that we achieved what we set out to do.
For the Royal Air Force’s Sergeant Wazeeha Laher, she had always wanted a career that provided her with adventure. But as a Muslim woman, not everybody believed that she would be able to find the excitement she was looking for in the military.
Speaking to VT, she tells me: “I was always interested in a career that was outside of the norm, but coming from a Muslim background, that was quite difficult - especially when I was growing up.
“But I always wanted some adventure or excitement. And I suppose I saw the military as both having a career and having the kind of lifestyle I wanted.”
When she was 24 years old, Laher started her journey in the military when she signed up as a reservist in the British Army.
It was a choice rather unexpected for a Gujarati-Muslim woman who had grown up in Leicester, and her new career path raised concerns with her parents, who she says were “understandably quite worried” at the time.
“All they knew about the army is: You join the army and then you go to war,” she tells me.
However, after learning more about the Royal Air Force and the many trades it has to offer its recruits, Laher joined the RAF full-time in 1998 when she was 26 years old.
“When I told [my parents] that I’d joined the Air Force and I told them the trade I was joining and I gave them more information, they were really happy about it,” she says. “They thought it was a really good career choice.”
After growing up watching shows like The Krypton Factor, Laher strived for the opportunity to prove herself in the more physical side of her training. And where others may dread the formidable drills, she tells me she “really enjoyed the stretcher runs and the log runs”.
Joining the service as an Intelligence Analyst Linguist, Laher was first posted to RAF Digby in early 2000 after completing her basic training and Russian language training.
However, after finding herself behind a desk, it wasn’t long before she was looking for the adventure she had always wanted.
“I asked about the possibility of going on a deployment somewhere,” Laher tells me. “At that time, the only place that was available to me was Northern Ireland. So I was deployed to Northern Island almost straight away.”
Over her 24-year career in the RAF, Laher has been posted not just across the UK, but all over the world - always jumping at the opportunity to experience a different life and other cultures elsewhere.
Sergeant Laher has worked in electronics warfare in Wales, studied Punjabi at the University of New Delhi in India, studied Spanish in Medellín, Colombia, and completed tours of Afghanistan and the Falkland Islands, among other amazing opportunities.
And as well as being able to travel for academic purposes, Laher has also been involved in lots of adventure training - all subsidised by the Royal Air Force.
She tells me that one of her most thrilling memories was a skydiving course she completed in the UK.
“I loved it,” she says. “When people have asked, ‘What sort of superhero power would you want to have?’ I’ve always said that I’d want to be able to fly. It’s that freedom. And skydiving gives you part of that.”
But through her career in the RAF, Laher has also been able to find fulfilment in her faith.
“The military paid for me to go on the Pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia,” she says.
Also known as the Umrah, it is an incredible opportunity for Muslims to visit Mecca in Saudi Arabia, one of the holiest sites in the Islam faith.
“It was an amazing experience - it’s in conjunction with the Saudi military,” Laher tells me. “I think the really wonderful thing about that is that you’re with other like-minded people from the military. So you’ve got two things in common with them, you’re Muslim and you’re doing this Pilgrimage, which is usually a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most people. But you’re also doing it from a military viewpoint. It’s just amazing.
“The whole journey is just spiritual.”
”It’s hard to describe to somebody who has perhaps never been to one of the holy sights for Muslim people,” she adds, “But you come away from it a different person.
“For Muslim communities, when I talk about it, firstly they’re just amazed. And secondly, you can see that they’re really happy for you because they know it’s such an amazing thing.”
And the Pilgrimage certainly isn’t the only time Sergeant Laher has felt like her faith has been accommodated in the Royal Air Force.
She confidently tells me: “I’ve never had any issues with my faith in the Air Force.
“When I was going through basic training, they got me Halal food, I had time to pray - I was always accommodated.
“I never really thought about it as an issue. The only real issue I had was that when I joined up, trousers weren’t really part of the uniform [for women], so I asked and they said, ‘Yeah, if you want to wear trousers instead of a skirt, you can wear trousers.’”
Laher added: “I just found that if I asked and explained why, they were really accommodating to you.
“Now when you join up you get a skirt and trousers.”
Providing another example, she said: “One of the main things for Muslim people is our fasting months for Ramadan.
“And in the trade that I’m in, I’ve always just asked and said, ‘It’s going to be my fasting months so can I change my working hours?’ And I’ve never been turned down.
“So, when I was working shifts, I’d ask for the night shifts, because that’s when we’re allowed to eat.
“Even things with physical exercise, I’ve always been told, ‘You can do it in your own time during Ramadan.’ Because you can’t do it in the day because you’ve got no energy.”
And there’s plenty of support in the Royal Air Force for other groups. As Sergeant Laher told me, there are different faith Networks for Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Christians - and many more.
Additionally, she highlights additional measures, such as Halal, Kosher, and vegan/vegetarian ration packs for personnel - a small detail that can go a long way to help people feel like they belong.
There’s also the RAF’s Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic Network in place to help support and encourage individuals of all races.
This positive encouragement is something that Sergeant Laher has now strived to share with others - especially with those in the Muslim community.
In her current role of Assistant to the Islamic Advisor to Chief of the Defence Staff, Sergeant Laher frequently volunteers as part of the RAF’s community outreach.
“I feel its important for communities to hear from people who are still in the Air Force,” she tells me. “I particularly go to a lot of Muslim women’s events or Muslim girls' schools, and one of the things I always get is: ‘Ah, you’re just like us!’”
To this, Sergeant Laher explains to people: “To me, this was just a career choice that I’ve loved - I’ve done for 24 years - and it doesn’t change who I am. I still practice being a Muslim. I still pray. I still fast. I still go on my Pilgrimages. I still pay my charity. I still have all the cultural side of it.”
“It’s just an addition to who you are,” she adds.
When I ask Sergeant Laher what she would say to somebody who may be thinking about joining the Royal Air Force but who may also be having reservations due to their ethnicity or faith, she tells me:
“I can only speak from my own point of view and my own experiences that the Air Force, in particular, has never ever shown me any negative bias or negative discrimination. I’ve always felt included.
“All my peers and colleagues have always respected my religion, my faith.”
As well as respect and a sense of belonging, the Royal Air Force has also provided Sergeant Laher with what she was always looking for; travel, thrills, and adventure.
“I really have achieved most of what I wanted,” she says.
For more information about life in the Royal Air Force and to find your role in the RAF, visit https://recruitment.raf.mod.uk/.
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