Prospects greater for Pakistani women

LAHORE, Pakistan | Malaika Khan settles comfortably into a tan leather sofa in one of the multiple coffee shops mushrooming all over Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city.

After recently launching a line of formal designer wear, she has ambitious plans to delve into ready-to-wear clothes.

Judging by her straight pants and snugly fitted brown top, it’s hard to guess that Miss Khan comes from a Pashtun family in Mardan, a city in North West Frontier Province, where women are draped in burqas and girls schools insist that teachers and students wear veils to avoid attacks from Muslim extremists.

Miss Khan, 30, said she has little in common with the women with whom she was raised.

“The world is changing rapidly, and so am I,” she said, her multiple bangle bracelets clinking as she lifted her coffee cup. “I feel no need to cover my face, and I don’t think marriage can define who I am.”

Although Pakistani women still face enormous obstacles, including high levels of violence based on their sex, urban women are increasingly choosing careers, juggling motherhood with workplace requirements and opting for divorce. Others are choosing to stay single until their late 20s or even 30s.

The figures remains small by Western standards. According to the 2005 United Nations Human Development Report, women’s participation in the Pakistani labor force was 28 percent, three-fourths of which was inside the home or in other informal settings.

Still, change is evident.

“The numbers of women stepping into the corporate work force has definitely increased by about 30 percent,” said Sadia Haroon, a Karachi-based human relations consultant. “As women in Pakistan are becoming more financially independent, they are choosing not to get married until it feels right, or not to stay in a marriage which isn’t working out.” The trend is a bright spot in a picture clouded by discrimination and domestic violence.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch describes the other side of the picture.

“Violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, rape, acid attacks and forced marriages, remain serious problems,” the report said.

Precise figures on violence based on their sex are hard to obtain, but Human Rights Watch estimated that 50 percent to 90 percent of Pakistani women experience some form of violence. According to Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, there have been more than 4,100 “honor killings” since 2001. In these cases, male relatives kill women to avenge perceived slights against the family honor - which can amount to as little as a woman being seen walking with a man to whom she is not related by blood or marriage.

Miss Khan, who studied at a convent school and then obtained her bachelor of arts degree from Kinnaird College, a premier all-girls institution in Lahore, said domestic violence is only a problem when the woman isn’t educated or aware of her rights.

“I would probably dump my husband if he ever tried to beat me up,” she said with a laugh.

Miss Khan said she underwent a transformation almost 10 years ago when her 18-year-old sister went through a divorce.

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