Prospects greater for Pakistani women

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By Ayesha Nasir, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

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.