Pakistan

Women and girls in Pakistan face heightened risks from insecurity, economic hardship, and shrinking civic space. Gender-based violence and accompanying social stigma remains pervasive, including domestic abuse, honor killings, trafficking, and conflict-related exploitation, while enforcement of legal protections is uneven and access to justice remains constrained—particularly in rural and conflict-affected areas. Restrictions on dissent have intensified, increasing risks of harassment and detention—especially for women journalists, activists, and mothers of those subjected to enforced disappearance. Economic decline and climate displacement have pushed many women out of formal employment, while girls’ school attendance has fallen disproportionately in flood-affected provinces due to early marriage pressures, caregiving burdens, and infrastructure damage. Afghan refugee women face heightened vulnerability under Pakistan’s deportations and policing policies, as forced returns and mobility restrictions separate families and increase exposure to exploitation.

Despite these pressures, Pakistani women remain central to community-level peacebuilding, humanitarian response, and rights advocacy, frequently operating where state governance and protection are weak or absent. Women-led organizations across Pakistan provide legal aid, shelters, psychosocial support, and livelihood assistance for survivors of gender-based violence, climate displacement, and conflict-related harm, while also mediating local disputes, documenting abuses, and advocating for accountability, including around enforced disappearances in Balochistan. Yet women’s political participation remains constrained: following the 2023 protests over Imran Khan’s arrest, women across multiple provinces were subjected to violent crackdowns, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearance, signaling the normalization of repressive tactics previously concentrated in peripheral regions. Although women hold reserved seats in parliament, their representation in leadership and influence over security policy, peace negotiations, and counterterrorism frameworks remain limited. Together, shrinking civic space and security-first governance continue to marginalize women from formal political power, even as women remain indispensable to sustaining community resilience, accountability, and peace.

Militant attacks by Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan and separatist groups increased in 2025, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, driving civilian casualties and localized displacement. Women and girls in Pakistan historically face heightened risks of movement restrictions, disrupted access to health and education, and increased exposure to intimidation and gender-based violence (GBV) amid insecurity in militant-affected areas.

The November 2025 constitutional amendment has significantly weakened judicial accountability and civilian oversight by curtailing courts’ ability to review executive and military conduct and by extending sweeping legal immunities to public officials. Legal experts warn that these changes erode judicial independence and undermine checks on state power. In this environment, women human rights defenders and journalists report surveillance, harassment, and self-censorship, constraining women’s political participation and accountability advocacy.

Ongoing IMF-mandated austerity measures continue to erode household purchasing power into early 2026. Women—overrepresented in informal labor and unpaid care work—are disproportionately affected by rising food and energy costs, with documented increases in negative coping strategies including early marriage and withdrawal of girls from school.

Pakistan is still recovering from a series of prior fall floods while experiencing winter rainfall and flash floods after month-long drought conditions—each of which undermine livelihoods and access to basic services. These shocks disproportionately affect rural and women-headed households as drought, soil degradation, and declining crop yields erode access to land, livestock, and income amid limited recovery support. Displaced women face compounded protection and health risks as damaged clinics, contaminated water sources, and weakened local health systems restrict access to menstrual hygiene supplies and reproductive health care, increasing risks of infection, unsafe childbirth, and untreated conditions.

Trans women have faced a surge in shootings, stabbings, and intimidation in cities such as Karachi and in conservative districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, often linked to livelihoods like begging and informal work. These attacks are occurring alongside heightened social conservatism, online incitement by prominent figures, and ongoing legal disputes and proposed legislation that challenge elements of the 2018 Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act—raising concerns about personal safety, access to justice, and the security of legal recognition.

Despite restricted civic space, women-led community organizations across KP, Balochistan, and Sindh continue to deliver psychosocial support, mediation, and humanitarian support in conflict-affected areas. Women activists and family networks also play a central role in documentation and accountability efforts, including sustained advocacy around enforced disappearances. Recent protests and legal mobilization following the arrest and sentencing of a prominent human rights lawyer couple illustrate the continued role of women-led networks in sustaining collective action and contesting the erosion of civic space amid intensifying repression. These locally embedded actors are critical to identifying early protection risks, supporting survivors of GBV, and mobilizing community responses to climate shocks and displacement.