Choosing to challenge gender inequality in Pakistan
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Gender inequality makes its mark early on in life in Pakistan.
We girls wore different clothes to the boys, I was sent to a girls’ school while my brother was sent to a boys’ schools. Although I did not like it, I was told this is the way the world was, and girls and boys have to go to separate institutions.
When I was a young woman commuting for work on public transport, I faced daily sexual harassment.
At the start of my career, in the 1980s, I worked in women’s rights organisations. I joined Women’s Action Forum – an independent forum fighting for women’s rights that started during Zia-ul-Haq’s regime to fight against the repressive laws against women; I also volunteered with War Against Rape in Lahore in 1992 as well as the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. In the 1997-98, I also had the opportunity to manage a UNDP project facilitating women’s mobility in urban Lahore. We brought civil socie