Pakistan formed part of the Mughal Empire, and more recently, together with India and Bangladesh, was part of the British Empire. On independence in 1947 the state of Pakistan was formed with two wings, West and East. In 1971, after a war, East Pakistan seceded and became the separate country of Bangladesh. Pakistan has five main ethnic groups of its 147 million population, they speak seven

main languages and 97% of them are Muslim.

Note to images: where not attributed, the pre-1975 pictures are taken from ‘Women of Pakistan’, a book produced by the Government of Pakistan for

International Women’s Year, 1975.

Women in political struggleWomen in political struggle

Prior to independence from British rule and the creation of Pakistan in 1947 a number of women were involved

in the struggles for female emancipation and independence from colonial rule. Women’s dress

depended, then as now, on region, class and occasion. The sheer variety of dress has dwindled over the years with a move towards shalwar kurtas (baggy trousers

and tunics) becoming the standard.

Mohtarma Miss Fatima Jinnah, sister of Pakistan’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, was prominent in all public arenas and the first Muslim woman to contest the presidency in 1965.

Raana Liaqat Ali, wife of Pakistan’s

first Prime Minister, and founder of the

All Pakistan Women’s

Association was the first woman

ambassador and provincial governor.

Fatima Jinnah and Raana Liaqat Ali both wore the ghararas, a loose divided skirt. Ghararas are now only worn in weddings.

Jahanara Shahnawaz

Shaista Ikramullah, representing Pakistan in a UN conference 1956-57

The two women members of the first Constituent Assembly (1946-54) are both in

saris. Saris were commonly worn by urban

professional women in West Pakistan (now Pakistan) until the late 1970s.

A pro-independence procession of Muslim women in pre-independence days.

Demonstration in front of Women’s Jail, Lahore, which had in it many Muslim women arrested by the British Government.

“The national struggle threw many women into the limelight as determined freedom fighters. Hundreds of them filled British jails. The story of the young girl who, defying the Police, scaled the walls to hoist

the Muslim League flag atop the Punjab Assembly building in Lahore, has now become a legend.”

Begum Nusrat Bhutto, 1975, wife of the Prime Minister on the frontispiece of ‘Women of Pakistan’ wearing a sari. So called ‘Islamization’ under General Zia ul Haq’s dictatorship (1977-1988) branded the sari as an ‘unIslamic’ form of dress. The sari is now making a comeback in fashionable circles but sarong-like lungis and laachas as well as other traditional dresses considered ‘peasant’ wear are steadily disappearing.

“The dream of an egalitarian social order based on a just and democratic

economic system will never come true if the female half of the

population continues to be the subservient sex.”

Begum Nusrat Bhutto, wife of Prime Minister Zulfikhar Ali Bhutto, March 1975. Pakistan took

an active part in the 1975 International Women’s Year and Nusrat led the delegation to

the UN’s first women’s conference in 1975.

Women’s Action Forum protests the rape and murder of the Masoom sisters.Lahore, 1987. Azhar Jafri

Women in Karachi protesting against water shortages in 2001.Note that the photographer has chosen to show the women with covered faces,

and perhaps they have chosen to cover for reasons of anonymity. AFP, The Nation, March 2001

Women activists of Pakistan Peoples Party (one of two major political parties) protest against Maulana Niazi’s fatwa against Benazir Bhutto.

Ishaq Chaudhry – The Muslim 12 August 1992

Women from one of the mainstream politico-religious parties Jamaat-e-Islami protesting outside the Supreme Court against Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s imprisonment – one of the leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami. They have filed a petition against his

arrest and are therefore making the ‘Peace’/’Victory’ sign. The Daily – Pakistan – Lahore, January 2002

Women protesting against the closure of a polling station at its regulatory time arguing that they were already waiting inside the station to vote. T-shirts, Iranian style chador and scarf mingle

with local fashion.AFP. Women voters, 1988 General Elections

March 8th celebration (1998, Sindh province).

Women at Women at WorkWork

These women’s class, backgrounds and status show through their dress as clearly as through the work

they do…

Working class fast food outlet,

Lahore.

K M Chaudry, The Muslim, March

1990

Karachi Stock Exchange workers.

AFP, The Nation, September 1999

Harvesting wheat in Punjab (2000)

Women crossing the dried up Indus river in search of water, Sindh Province.

AFP, The Nation, March 2001

Drama artists rehearsing in Radio Pakistan’s studio in Rawalpindi.

In the 1960s kameez (tunics) were short and the shalwar wide. None of

the women has covered her head with the dupatta.

Farming family from a village in Sindh.

Sorting scrap metal at a Lahore factory.

AFP, Daily Times, May 2003

SportsSports

Pakistan has always had a strong sporting tradition. In 1975 the Government was very proud and supportive of women’s sports:

“Until recently the concept of young girls sprinting across athletic tracks or dashing around sports arenas was anathema to a social order which had decreed that women’s place was the home. The

few bold and the brave who managed to defy social dictates of the times could, however, move no farther than badminton and table

tennis courts. Whatever talents were, they remained undiscovered and underdeveloped in the absence of training facilities and

competitions.”

Women of Pakistan, Government of Pakistan, 1975

Group of National athletes at the National Training and Coaching Centre, Karachi.

Note the variety of covering which would not nowadays be possible – all would be in track-suit bottoms and baggy long-sleeved shirts to

cover the body shape.

Lahore College for Women sports day

Dawn, February 2000

Hockey in Lahore

Iqbal Ch, The News, April 2001

Punjab University Inter-Collegiate Women’s Cricket Championship at Lahore College.

Dawn, January 2000

Under the 1977-1985 martial law regime when dress codes tightened, women continued to play sports but under more difficult conditions. The participation of all Pakistani women in sporting

events abroad or in public (in front of an audience that could include males) stopped. In the early

1980s Pakistan’s highly successful women’s hockey team was turned back from the airport while on its way to an international event. After the return of democracy, women were able to

compete internationally although there is still a reluctance to open women’s sports events to the

public.

Outside Outside InfluencesInfluences

The 1977-1985 martial law regime emphasised Pakistan’s connections with the Middle East and downplayed its Asian

history, and promoted the veil. Forms of purdah never before seen in Pakistan are now widespread in urban areas,

including the Iranian-style veils and Middle Eastern headscarves, which are replacing the traditional Pakistani chaddar and traditional burqas stylised in the cartoon. But

dresses vary as seen in the shopping scenes:

Shirkat Gah

Moment II, 1999Aisha Khalid

Pakistan: Another Vision, Fifty years of painting and sculpture from Pakistan,

2000

Urban shopping 1.

(2004) anon. wluml

Urban shopping 2.

Lahore, Camerapix, Pakistan, 1994

Women on the moveWomen on the move

The freedom of women has ebbed and flowed with successive political regimes. This has not only shown itself in dress but also in women’s

daily activities and individual mobility.

Karachi Harbour, c 1910-20.Postcard

“A woman driving a taxi, even today, would make an unusual sight. Mrs Waheeda Baig started operating a driving school for women in the fifties. After the war of 1965, she became a full-time cab driver, astonishing many and annoying some.” No women taxi drivers are to be seen nowadays.

UKS Diary 1998

Filling up in the 1960s.

She is one of the very few women riding a motorcycle one

can see on the streets of Lahore.

The Sun, January 2nd 2000

Woman happily riding her donkey cartDawn, 2001

A horse drawn tonga in Lahore – a cheap and popular form of

transport in Lahore and other cities.

Pakistan – from mountains to sea, 1994

A young woman getting from A to B on Lake Manchar.

Pakistan – from mountains to sea, 1994

Modes and Modes and Codes:Codes: traditional traditional dress to ethnic chicdress to ethnic chic

Rural and nomadic women retain their

traditional dress more than urban and better-off

women...

Pathan women of Peshawar, c 1910.Postcard

Gujar women and girls in the main street of

Madyan, Hindu Kush.Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Arts and Crafts of the Swat Valley, Johannes

Katter, 1989

Torwali women on a visit to MadyanJohannes Katter, 1989

Stylized variations of the shalwar-kameez traditional to most parts of Pakistan are now commonly seen at

specially staged ‘cultural events’ and sell in shops around the world

to better-off women who know little or nothing of the culture the dress

comes from or the weight of meaning it once carried.

We should know about the women in Swat that, “ … from the age of puberty a women is literally shut up in the house and can leave it only with the permission of her father or her husband, and only on special occasions and under special conditions.”

The Life of the Women in the Zenana, Viola Forster-Luhe, 1989

“Swati traditional dress, baggy Shalwar and Kameez with a Chaddar

resting on both the shoulders.”Women of Pakistan, 1975

Ministers, baboos asked to wear national dressMinisters, baboos asked to wear national dressBy Ansar AbbasiBy Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: National dress should be worn on formal occasions, this is not a demand of the newly emerged Islamic political force - Muttahida Majlis-e-Aamal - but a direction of the military regime to all its key members and top bureaucrats.

Through an "immediate" circular issued to all the federal ministers, advisers and key bureaucrats including federal secretaries, the cabinet secretary Javed Masud directs that on all formal occasions the national dress should be worn.

The ministers, secretaries, advisers most of whom have been seen wearing western attire during the last three years of the military regime are now told to wear national dress ie "white or black sherwani/achkan or a buttoned up black waist-coat (V shaped in summer and closed collar in winter), kurta/kamees and shalwar/pyjama, black shoes and matching socks, preferably with Jinnah Krakuli cap."

… A conspicuous change is now expected in Pakistan television where the lady newscasters and announcers have stopped wearing headscarf, models and television artists are shown in western dresses in entertainment programmes and commercials and Azzan (call for prayers) has been stopped.

The News International, Pakistan. October 16th, 2002