Once upon a time, in a remote village in Pakistan, a 32-year-old resilient woman Sardar Begum, lived a simple life with her husband, a dedicated police constable, and their three children – a 10-year-old son, a three-year-old daughter, and a one-year-old son.
Tragedy struck when her husband was deployed to the War Zone during the 1971 India-Pakistan conflict. The Pakistani government provided only a year’s salary before he left, leaving the family financially vulnerable. An extended family member, seizing the opportunity, demanded repayment of a debt, fearing the loss of his money should her husband not return.
Sardar Begum, a woman of strength and dignity, promptly paid off the debt, leaving some funds for herself and her two children. As the war unfolded, news of her husband’s fate remained uncertain. Her struggle intensified as many service members were fatally dead due to inadequate war training, while others were captured as prisoners of war by the Indian Army.
Undeterred by her inability to read or write, having never attended school, Sardar Begum displayed remarkable entrepreneurial spirit. She embarked on a journey into entrepreneurship, taking up the challenge of raising a cow and a few goats. With determination as her guide, she ventured into selling milk in the village, demonstrating resilience and resourcefulness to sustain her family. Her youngest son, now ten, was responsible for shepherding the goats after school. The nightly routine included the 10-year-old comforting his mother, assuring her that his father would return or, if not, promising to work to support the family.
Every day, the boy would listen to the radio for news of prisoners of war, but disappointment prevailed. Tragedy struck when the young shepherd was fatally hit by a car while assisting the goats to cross the road. Devastated, Sardar Begum lost her mental stability seeing her 10-year-old son’s dead body and entrusting her younger children to relatives’ care.
Amidst poverty, despair, mentally unstable mother, the family’s fortune changed in 1974 with the final signatures on the Shimla Agreement between India and Pakistan. Her husband, wearing torn clothes filled with mud, returned as a war survivor. Though haunted by the loss of their 10-year-old son, they embarked on a journey of healing. A spiritual healer aided Sardar Begum’s mental recovery, and she rebuilt her life with her husband’s unwavering support.
The family faced another tragedy in 1990 when her husband, a policeman, lost his life in a road accident while on duty. The burden weighed heavily on their three sons, each coping with their own demons.
Although shaken to her core, Sardar Begum found renewed strength within her. Turning to her married daughter, she saw a support system and a beacon of empowerment. The responsibility now rested on the shoulders of two resilient women, both with an unwavering determination to uplift three younger brothers, particularly the youngest at the tender age of 12.
Inspired by his sister and mother’s resilience, The youngest 12-year-old decided to break free from the cycle of disappointment and disadvantage. Just before his father’s departure, he asked a question that had always lingered in his mind. Wondering why his brother shared the surname “Ali” with their father while he bore the name “Iqbal,” he sought an explanation. His father told him that his grandfather had chosen “Iqbal” in honor of the great philosopher Dr Allama Iqbal, who was often hailed as The Thinker of Pakistan.
The young Iqbal promised to become a “philosopher and scientist” one day to make his father proud. The pledge hung in the air as a symbol of determination and aspiration. When his father passed away, the young Iqbal decided to fulfil his promise despite a lack of financial means. He graduated in computer science from a distance learning educational provider in 1999, became a software engineer in 2000 with a US based software company’s office in Lahore, and eventually, he was offered a job and moved to London as a highly skilled migrant in 2001, where he continued working full-time for 5 years to save enough money to pursue his promise, so in 2006, he enrolled himself in the MSc program. Upon winning a scholarship in 2007, he finally completed his PhD from Kingston University UK in 2010 to become Dr. Iqbal. He opted out of the official graduation ceremony and admitted a lack of courage to step onto the stage without the presence of his father in the audience. Instead, he quietly retrieved his degree and celebrated it with his father while sitting on a bench by the Thames River, just outside the Registrar’s office at Kingston University. Despite achieving his dream, his father’s absence haunted him throughout his journey. Still, he found solace in meeting father figures, role models and mentors along the way, including Lahore-based Dr. Farhat Rustam, a London-based Abrar Hussain, Surrey-based Ikram Dar and Kingston based Henry Wang. All these mentors helped him to break his chains and find his wings to fulfil his dreams. He became an entrepreneurial professor who worked with several universities in the UK, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
In tribute to his mother’s spirit Muddesar Iqbal, the youngest son, embarked on a transformative journey by co-founding a not-for-profit organization alongside his wife an equally remarkable woman and the driving force behind all initiatives under the Global Association for Academic Supervision. In 2024, they expanded their impact by founding Startupden.org, a Digital Startup Incubator in London, both initiatives dedicated to uplifting disadvantaged youth with a special focus on empowering women through entrepreneurial opportunities.

Considering our co-founder’s compelling life story, our vision becomes evident: to mentor and provide entrepreneurial opportunities for disadvantaged young individuals, especially women like his mother., ensuring they can withstand the challenges of uncertain fates in developing countries.
The story unfolded as a testament to the enduring impact that a single individual, fueled by a vision of empowerment, can have on the lives of others.