The Unrelenting March of Women’s Rights in Pakistan: History, Laws and the Road Ahead

A story of advance and retreat

It would be easy to tell this story as a straight line from darkness to light. That would be wrong. Women’s rights in Pakistan have moved forward, been pushed back and moved forward again, more than once. The marchers of each generation have had to defend what the last one won.

The law in Pakistan has run ahead of society. For a woman in a village, the question is rarely what the statute says. It is whether the police will write down her complaint, whether her family will let her go to court and whether she has anywhere to sleep that night.

Seven eras in brief

The founders

Women were part of the campaign for Pakistan, and they voted in its first elections. In 1949 Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan founded the All Pakistan Women’s Association, which ran schools and clinics. In 1965 Fatima Jinnah, the founder’s sister, ran for president against a military ruler. She lost a vote that was not fully free, but a woman had stood for the highest office eighteen years after independence.

The 1961 reform

The Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961 remains the foundation of family law. It said that:

• every marriage must be registered;
• a man wishing to take a second wife must apply to a local council and show his existing wife’s consent;
• a divorce takes effect only after notice and a waiting period, during which reconciliation is attempted.

Religious parties opposed it then and some oppose it still. It has survived every government since.

The Constitution of 1973

Three articles matter most.

The reversal under General Zia

After the coup of 1977 General Zia-ul-Haq set about bringing the law into line with his reading of Islam. Two measures did lasting damage to women.

• The Hudood Ordinances of 1979 made sex outside marriage a crime. In practice a woman who reported rape and could not prove it risked being charged herself.
• The Law of Evidence of 1984 reduced the weight of a woman’s testimony in certain financial cases.

In response a group of women in Karachi formed the Women’s Action Forum in 1981. On 12 February 1983 police in Lahore baton-charged a women’s march against the evidence law. That date is now National Women’s Day.

Firsts

In 1988 Benazir Bhutto became prime minister, the first woman to lead the government of a Muslim-majority country. Her governments opened women’s police stations and a bank for women, and in 1996 Pakistan joined the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Zia-era laws, however, stayed on the books. She did not have the votes to repeal them.

The law-making years

The largest burst of legislation came after 2000, under a military ruler and then two elected governments.

The street returns

On 8 March 2018 women in Karachi held the first Aurat March (“women’s march”). It has been held every International Women’s Day since, in several cities. Its placards, some of them about control over one’s own body, provoked a furious reaction from religious parties and television commentators. Organisers have faced court petitions, threats and restrictions on their routes. The marches have continued.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

Child marriage

For most of Pakistan’s history the law was a colonial Act of 1929 that let girls marry at 16. Change has come province by province.

The laws differ in an important way. Balochistan’s treats a child marriage as void from the start. In Punjab, campaigners say, such a marriage is illegal but stays valid until a court ends it, which leaves the burden on the girl.

The Council of Islamic Ideology, an official advisory body, objected to the Islamabad law. Parliament passed it regardless.

Domestic violence

In January 2026 a joint sitting of Parliament passed the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act. It applies to Islamabad. It covers physical, emotional, verbal, sexual and economic abuse, protects children and the elderly as well as wives, and provides for up to three years in prison.

Each province already had a law of its own:

A small rise in the rankings

The World Economic Forum’s report for 2026 put Pakistan 143rd of 145 countries, up from last place among 148 in 2025. Its score rose from 56.7 to 59.5 per cent, the largest gain in a decade, driven mainly by more girls in education. On economic participation Pakistan was still second from the bottom.

Rights on paper and in practice

The numbers

Figures on women in Pakistan come from different surveys taken in different years. Treat them as a broad picture.

A few more:

• About one girl in six is married before she turns 18, according to the national health survey.
• Roughly three married women in ten told the same survey that they had suffered physical violence. Other studies, using wider definitions, give much higher figures.
• The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan counted at least 405 killings in the name of “honour” in 2024. Police figures it cited for 2025 were higher, at 470 or more.
• A woman is far more likely to die in childbirth in Pakistan than in most of its neighbours.

Why practice lags behind the law

1. The police station. Officers are overwhelmingly male. Families are urged to “settle” complaints. A case not registered never reaches a court.
2. Money. A woman with no income and no property cannot easily leave a violent home.
3. Parallel justice. Village councils of elders still decide disputes in many areas, though the Supreme Court declared their rulings illegal in 2019.
4. The pardon. In many crimes the victim’s family may forgive the offender. When the family is also the offender’s family, that is easily arranged.
5. Mobility. Many women cannot travel, work or study without a male relative’s permission.
6. Thin budgets. Shelters, helplines and women’s protection officers exist in law in every province. Far fewer exist on the ground.

Women who broke through

It is fair to add that several of these women came from powerful families. The critics who point that out are right that a famous surname opens doors. It is also true that each of them then did the job.

The arguments

Religion and rights

Opponents of reform often say that laws on marriage age, domestic violence or inheritance are foreign ideas dressed up as rights. Supporters, including many religious scholars, reply that Islam gave women rights to property, consent and divorce fourteen centuries ago, and that it is custom, not faith, that denies them. Most Pakistani women’s organisations make their case in both languages at once: the Constitution and the faith.

The Aurat March

The march divides opinion sharply. Its critics say its slogans offend religion and culture and speak for a small urban elite. Its organisers say that working-class women, farm labourers and domestic workers march in large numbers, and that the slogans are attacked so that the demands, such as equal pay, safe streets and an end to violence, need not be answered.

Seats or power?

Reserved seats guarantee that about a fifth of legislators are women. But those members are chosen from party lists, not by voters, and are often relatives of male politicians. In 2024 only about a dozen women won a general seat in the National Assembly. Some campaigners want the reserved seats replaced by a rule that parties must field women in winnable constituencies.

Where to get help

Helpline numbers and services change. The following exist at the time of writing; check that they are current before relying on them.

Words used in this article

What to watch next

• Whether Khyber Pakhtunkhwa raises the marriage age to 18, completing the set.
• How the Islamabad domestic violence law is used in its first years, and whether rules and protection officers follow.
• Whether the gender gap ranking keeps rising, and whether the gain spreads from schooling to jobs.
• Whether the gap between men and women on the voters’ list closes before the next general election.

For how laws are made, read our explainers on the National Assembly and the Senate.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• ProPakistani, “Pakistan climbs five places in Global Gender Gap Report 2026” — 17 September 2026.
• Asia News Network, “Pakistan ranked third-to-last in WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2026” — 2026.
• UN Women, Global Database on Violence against Women: Pakistan country profile
• The Friday Times, “Lifeline For Survivors: Understanding Pakistan’s Domestic Violence Act 2026” — 28 January 2026.
• Senate of Pakistan, text of the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act, 2026
• Government of Balochistan, The Balochistan Child Marriages Restraint Act 2025
• Gulf News, “Pakistan’s Punjab Assembly passes law setting 18 as minimum marriage age” — April 2026.
• Equality Now, Q&A on child marriage and the bill passed by the Punjab Assembly — 29 April 2026.
• Aaj English, “405 women killed in Pakistan last year in the name of ‘honour'” — 2025.
• National Assembly of Pakistan, press release on the Child Marriage Restraint Bill
• National Commission on the Status of Women