The Story of Zahra

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to narrates the lived experiences and story of a woman, a philanthropist, an engineer, and an academician who held from a remote part of Northern Nigeria. It is a part of the Biographical Narrative Method of qualitative research (Kutsyuruba & Mendes, 2023). Listening to and interpreting the narratives of a philanthropist, an engineer, and an academician is a motivational feature of a professional woman. Research methodologies don’t usually consider the psycho-social and biographical dynamics of individuals’ lives considering the dynamics in their geographical settings (Flynn, 2019). The paper draws from the experiences of a woman who hailed from an ethnicity, and shared a common culture, sourcing relevant literature. This is a biographic narrative story and lived experiences that reveal some of the challenges experienced by women dependent upon their psycho-social, socio-economic, and geographical setup. Mainly storytelling. Upon which experiences are driven by the story. A restorying was made and themes were obtained as struggle/challenges, motivation, strengths, and lessons from the experiences were highlighted (Cardenal, 2016). The analytic strategy focuses on the whole life history or story (biography), how it was told (narrative), and the social interpretation (interpretive). The story provides an overview of its potential application for motivation and change of perceptions of people. It said that “when we shift our perception, our experiences change”. The interview provides a useful tool to help with an in-depth qualitative exploration of her life story and experiences.