Pakistan is a country endowed with the finest of everything, including some outstanding Pakistani women who have made us proud across the world. Their impressive resumes should inspire our young people to follow in their footsteps.
Growing up, we were all told that our job options were restricted to medical, teaching, or doing nothing at all. If your interests do not fall into any of those categories, it is easy to become disheartened in this setting.
However, there are many successful women in Pakistan who followed their own way. Here is a list of Pakistani women who are succeeding in self-created careers for your daily dose of inspiration!
1. 1. Uzma Khan – Politician
Uzma Khan is a politician from the village of Mayar Jandol in the district of Lower Dir. From 2008 until 2013, she was a member of the KPK Assembly. She is also a member of the Standing Committee on Labor, the Standing Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Standing Committee on Administration. She holds Shahadatul Aalamia, BCS, and MA degrees.
2. 2. Sharmila Farooqi – Politician
Sharmila Farooqi is a Karachi politician who was an advisor to Sindh’s Chief Minister from 2008 until 2011. She also appears on television on a regular basis as a spokesman for her party and to defend her political ideas. She holds an MBA and a Master of Law degree from the Adamson Institute of Business Administration and Technology.
3. 3. Shazia Syed – CEO of Unilever Pakistan
Shazia Syed was named CEO of Unilever Pakistan Limited in 2015 after previously served as Chairperson of Unilever Sri Lanka Limited. She has also worked with Unilever Vietnam, where she has a lengthy experience.
4. 4. Sima Kamil – CEO of United Bank Limited (UBL)
Sima Kamil is United Bank Limited’s first female CEO and President, having been appointed in May 2017 after running Habib Bank Limited for six years. She was also in charge of HBL’s Women Market Program. Kamil holds an MBA from City University in London and has worked in microfinance.
5. 5. Marium Afzal – Business Women
Marium Afzal is a renowned businesswoman in Pakistan who has been assisting the Punjab government by developing citizen feedback technologies in collaboration with the World Bank. She graduated first in her class in 2010 with honours and is currently regarded as the country’s leading businesswoman.
6. 6. Jehan Ara – Entrepreneur
Jehan Ara is a major entrepreneur in Pakistan and the President of Pakistan Software Houses Association, which has grown to become one of the world’s top IT firms. She also gives back to society as a social activist and an inspiration to Pakistani women and girls.
7. 7. Farida Shaheed – Sociologist and Activist
Farida Shaheed is a sociologist and human rights activist who was designated as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights in 2012. She is the director of the Shirkat Gah women’s resource centre in Pakistan and has worked on gender and class analysis in Pakistan. She has used her more than 25 years of expertise to transform the way people think about rural development, labour, culture, and religion. She is also a co-founder of the Women’s Action Forum and Women Living Under Muslim Laws.
8. 8. Khalida Inayat Noor – Mathematician
Khalida Inayat Noor is a Pakistani mathematician who received the Pride of Performance Award for her contributions to her nation. She received her PhD from Wales University in 1972 and is presently the editor of multiple publications as well as a member of Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission. She is also a mathematics professor at UAE University, and her work was published in the Journal of Mathematics in 1996.
Khalida Inayat Noor is a Pakistani mathematician who received the President of Pakistan’s Pride of Performance award in 2011. Mathematical analysis, variational inequalities, and integral operators are among her research interests.
9. 9. Azra Quraishi – Botanist
Dr. Azra Quraishi was a prominent botanist who was recognised for her work on tissue culture and developing virus-free seed potatoes in Pakistan, reducing the need to import the crop from the Netherlands. As a result, she is credited for improving Pakistani potato output by 5%. She received several honours, including the Hamdard Award in 1992, the Norman Borlaug Award in 1997, the PARC/PARSA Millenium Award in 2001, and the Ordre des Palmes Academiques Award in 2002.
Azra Quraishi developed virus-free seed potatoes in Pakistan. This study influenced her country’s trade position since it lowered the need to import seed potatoes from the Netherlands because she raised Pakistan’s yearly potato production by 5%. This gift earned her national attention. Azra Quraishi has also “successfully undertaken initiatives of micropropagation of banana, date palm,[3] and assessing salt tolerance by tissue culture in local wheat and rice cultivars.” She had almost 140 scholarly articles to her credit.
10. 10. Uzma Nawaz – Mechanic
Uzma Nawaz is a 24-year-old woman who is constantly redefining ideas of what women are capable of. She is initially from the hamlet of Dunyapur and has relied on scholarships to further her studies and shatter the prejudices she is now breaking. She received a mechanical engineering degree and currently works at an auto repair shop in Multan. After only a year on the job, she was promoted to general repairs.
11. 11. Nergis Mavalvala – Astrophysicist
Nergis Mavalvala is a Pakistani astrophysicist who is credited with detecting gravitational waves as part of the LIGO experiment. She is presently an Astrophysics Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She also serves as the Associate Head of MIT’s Physics Department.
Nergis Mavalvala, the Marble Professor of Astrophysics at MIT and a MacArthur “genius” grant laureate in 2010, is a physicist whose research focuses on gravitational wave detection and quantum measurement science.
Mavalvala was born in Pakistan’s Lahore and raised in Karachi. She was a tinkerer by nature, and she was frequently up to her elbows in grease as she immersed herself in the mechanics of bike maintenance. Early in school, she gravitated toward math and physics, and her parents, who were ardent supporters of both of their daughters’ education, urged her to apply to colleges abroad.
12. 12. Tahira Abdullah – Social Scientist and Activist
Tahira Abdullah is a social scientist and human rights activist who works with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Women’s Action Forum. She works with several trusts and policy organisations, and she has advocated about establishing a place for women human rights advocates. She was also involved in the HCRP’s reaction to Kasur’s child sexual abuse incident, and she was certain that this should not have happened to even one kid.
13. 13. Sana Mir – Captain of Pakistan’s Women Cricket Team
Sana Mir began playing cricket when she was five years old, progressing from street cricket with her siblings to enrolling in an engineering degree to recognising her true love and becoming a professional player. She is presently the captain of Pakistan’s National Women Cricket Squad, and she has guided the team to gold medals in both the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games.
14. 14. Naseem Hameed – South Asia’s Fastest Women
After winning the 100 metres in 11.81 seconds at the South Asian Federation Games in 2010, Naseem Hameed became known as South Asia’s Fastest Woman. She has since served as an athlete for 12 years and is now giving back to society as a coach at the Aman Foundation and a trainer for poor children in Korangi.
15. 15. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy – Filmmaker
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a Pakistani-Canadian journalist, filmmaker, and activist best recognised for her work in documentaries that expose gender injustice. She was born on November 12, 1978. She has two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awards, and the Knight International Journalism Award.
In 2012, the Government of Pakistan bestowed upon her the Hilal-i-Imtiaz, the country’s second highest civilian honour, and the same year Time magazine named her one of the world’s 100 most important people. She holds the distinction of being the first female film director to win two Academy Awards before the age of 37.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a Pakistani director, has received her first Academy Award. ‘Saving Face,‘ her documentary film, is a narrative of optimism with a striking message for the Pakistani audience.
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