Celebrating Inspirational Pakistani Women

Ameena Saiyid

- for run­ning the most pres­ti­gious pub­lish­ing orga­ni­za­tion; for reviv­ing read­ing habits and love for books among chil­dren and adults alike and for launch­ing Pak­istan’s biggest lit­er­a­ture fes­ti­val that is fast turn­ing into a tra­di­tion!

- for oblit­er­at­ing the tycoons of cor­rup­tion and mis­ery in Pak­istan and for giv­ing a voice to count­less women who had lost hope and mean­ing of life

Atiya Fyzee Rahamin

- for being a lead­ing patron of art, cul­ture, music and lit­er­a­ture and for being an accom­plished artist and poet her­self who chose to set­tle in Pak­istan after par­ti­tion at the request of Mr. Jin­nah

- for writ­ing bold and rebel­lious poet­ry high­light­ing the plight of women, dis­crim­i­na­tion they face at the hands of men in the soci­ety and the crimes that are per­pe­trat­ed against them!

- for being one of the most out­stand­ing and inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed his­to­ri­ans Pak­istan has pro­duced so far

Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan

- for being one of the ear­li­est women politi­cian and social work­er in Pak­istan; for being the first female Gov­er­nor of a province and Chan­cel­lor of a Uni­ver­si­ty; for found­ing APWA, old­est and lead­ing orga­ni­za­tion for wel­fare of women in the coun­try.

- for being the first woman Prime Min­is­ter in the mod­ern Mus­lim world and for fight­ing dic­ta­tor­ship with­out fear of her life

Bilquis Edhi

- for silent­ly, humbly striv­ing to take Edhi and its work for­ward

Bushra Gohar

- for being a lead­ing human rights activist and politi­cian from the con­ser­v­a­tive Khy­ber Pakhtunkhwa province and for cham­pi­oning the cause of women inside and out­side par­lia­ment

Diep Saee­da

- for fear­less­ly fight­ing big­otry, extrem­ism and per­se­cu­tion of the poor and help­less by always tak­ing the front lead; for her exem­plary courage and val­or

Dr Farzana Bari

- for her out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to gen­der stud­ies and for being a vocal wom­en’s rights activist

- for her life­long con­tri­bu­tion to fam­i­ly planning/population wel­fare and for being the only Pak­istani woman to serve on the exec­u­tive board of UNESCO and head the orga­ni­za­tion

Dr. Mal­i­ha Lod­hi

- for her out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion as a jour­nal­ist, edi­tor and lat­er as a diplo­mat when she served as Pak­istan’s top diplo­mat to US and UK

- for her tremen­dous com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices in the areas of health care, edu­ca­tion and social activism espe­cial­ly in Balochis­tan where she estab­lished thou­sands of schools for girls

- for ded­i­cat­ing her life to fight­ing Lep­rosy in Pak­istan and being instru­men­tal in con­tain­ing the dis­ease in the coun­try

Dr. Shamshad Akhtar

- for being the first female Gov­er­nor, State Bank of Pak­istan; for her out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion as econ­o­mist who served on senior posi­tions at World Bank and lat­er at the Asian Devel­op­ment Bank.

- for dar­ing to say no to the patri­archy and writ­ing rebel­lious poet­ry that forced her to go into exile dur­ing Gen­er­al Zia’s era

Faryal Gohar

- for being a lead­ing human rights activist and a fem­i­nist writer who earned acco­lades nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly

Gulzar Bano

- for being one of the first women to serve in the bureau­cra­cy and being the first woman Cab­i­net Sec­re­tary; for being one of the fore­most Pak­istani women poets in Eng­lish

Hina Jilani

- for fear­less­ly fight­ing cas­es of help­less women sub­ject­ed to worst dis­crim­i­na­tion in the patri­ar­chal soci­ety

- for ded­i­cat­ing her life to serv­ing the down­trod­den and under­priv­i­leged in Balochis­tan that earned her the title ‘Queen of Balochis­tan’

- for being the first woman to rise to the posi­tion of judge in a high court in Pak­istan and for advo­cat­ing repeal of Hudood Ordi­nances while she head­ed Nation­al Com­mis­sion on Sta­tus of Women

- for writ­ing the poet­ry of rebel­lion dar­ing age-old anti-women tra­di­tions and cus­toms

- for earn­ing inter­na­tion­al acclaim for her the­atri­cal per­for­mances and using her Ajo­ka the­atre group to high­light social issues and pro­mote social caus­es

- for being the first woman to rise to the rank of a Gen­er­al in Pak­istani army

- for tak­ing a bold pub­lic stance against big­otry and reli­gious extrem­ism and brave­ly fight­ing for injus­tices and oppres­sion at all forums

Maryam Bibi

- for her out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to improve the sta­tus of women at grass­roots lev­el in Khy­ber Pakhtunkhuwa through Khwen­do Kor, an orga­ni­za­tion she found­ed in 1993 and that works in over 300 cities and towns focus­ing on social orga­ni­za­tion, com­mu­ni­ty-based female edu­ca­tion, micro­cre­d­it, pri­ma­ry health care and advo­ca­cy.

Mukhtara Mai

- for fight­ing alone, and then togeth­er, against abuse and sex­u­al vio­lence against women

- for being a pio­neer of fine arts in Pak­istan and for set­ting up depart­ment of fine arts in Pun­jab Uni­ver­si­ty which evolved into a cen­tre of excel­lence in fine arts and pro­duced many not­ed artists

Rashi­da Moham­mad Hus­sain Patel

- for her life­long com­mit­ment to eman­ci­pa­tion and pro­tec­tion of legal rights of women in her role as a lead­ing lawyer; for found­ing Pak­istan Women Lawyers Asso­ci­a­tion that has pro­vid­ed legal aid to count­less women

Seema Aziz

- for estab­lish­ing Care Foun­da­tion, a lead­ing non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion pro­vid­ing edu­ca­tion to over 100,000 chil­dren in mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties

Sharmeen Obaid Chi­noy

- for mak­ing mean­ing­ful doc­u­men­taries high­light­ing real issues faced by Pak­istan and for bring­ing home the first Oscar Award won by any Pak­istani

- for her grace and the lead glo­ry on the stage that mes­mer­izes 100 a hearts at a time; for relent­less­ly fight­ing for wom­en’s rights and empow­er­ment

- for her not­ed con­tri­bu­tion as a jour­nal­ist and lat­er as a par­lia­men­tar­i­an and a vocal wom­en’s rights activist who tabled var­i­ous bills in the assem­bly to empow­er women and pro­tect them from dis­crim­i­na­tion and harass­ment

- for bold­ly fac­ing tyran­ny and big­otry and fight­ing for wom­en’s rights

- for her strug­gle span­ning over 60 years for the rights of the under­priv­i­leged, includ­ing work­ers, peas­ants and women

- for being a pio­neer of Eng­lish jour­nal­ism and fem­i­nism in Pak­istan, for being the first woman colum­nist, edi­tor, pub­lish­er and polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor

- for her out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to Eng­lish jour­nal­ism that spans over four decades; and for writ­ing high­ly valu­able books