Meet Dr. Mariam who is ready to plumb depths of North Pole

JEDDAH: A young Saudi doctor plans to become the first Arab woman to dive under the freezing North Pole ice.
The story of Mariam Firdaus has been published by the Arabic website of The Huffington Post, which revealed that she started diving eight years ago while still a medical student at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah.
“The sea was a beautiful break for me during my studies,” she said, adding that she did not know the pastime would develop into a passion. She said a scholarship abroad had a strong influence because she traveled frequently, and went for dives wherever she could.
“In the beginning, patients and their families did not know about my hobby, but recently when the media began to highlight it more, I noticed that many people admired me and wanted to know about the places I went to dive.”
Firdaus said the Arctic dive would be undertaken under the supervision of the Russian Geographical Society, just one degree from the North Pole site. She said preparations would be extensive because of the harsh, inaccessible and icy conditions.