I opened the workshop after seven employers told me women do not repair engines

Dear Delyara, I trained as a mechanic with my uncle and could rebuild an engine before several garages would even let me hold their tools. Seven employers rejected me outright or offered reception work instead. I began repairing scooters in my family’s courtyard. Customers arrived through word of mouth, first women who felt uncomfortable in male-run garages, then delivery riders, taxi drivers, anyone who discovered I was good. I saved for four years, completed business registration, and rented a narrow workshop with one lift. Today marks six months since opening. We repaired our hundredth vehicle this week, and I hired a second mechanic. My father had opposed the business because he thought customers would humiliate me. Yesterday, he brought his own car in for service and waited in the customer chair without offering a single instruction. When I handed him the invoice, he paid the full amount. Career success did not come when people finally decided women could do this work. It came when I stopped waiting for somebody else’s garage to become generous enough to let my hands prove what they already knew.