FROM PAGE B4

buses decorated with chinking bells, with a handful of women stepping out amid the crowd of men.

Nineteen-year-old Anum Shahzadi, who works in the same factory inputting data, was encouraged by her parents to enter the workforce after completing high school, unlike generations before her.

“What is the point of education if a girl can’t be independent,” said Shahzadi, who now contributes to the household alongside her brother.

Bushra Khaliq, executive director for Women In Struggle for Empowerment (WISE) which advocates for political and economic rights for women, said that Pakistan was “witnessing a shift” among urban middle class women.

“Up until this point, they had been told by society that taking care of their homes and marriage were the ultimate objective,” she told AFP.

“But an economic crunch and any social and economic crises bring with them a lot of opportunities.”

Farzana Augustine, from Pakistan’s minority Christian community, earned her first salary last year at the age of 43, after her husband lost his job during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“My wife had to take over,” Augustine Saddique explained to AFP.

“But it is nothing to be sad about, we are companions and are running our house together.”

The sprawling port metropolis of Karachi, officially home to 20 million people but likely many millions more, is the business centre of Pakistan.

It pulls in migrants and entrepreneurs from across the country with the promise of employment and often acts as a bellwether for social change.

Nineteen-year-old Zahra Afzal moved to Karachi to live with her uncle four years ago, after the death of her parents, leaving her small village in central-eastern Pakistan to work as a childminder.

“If Zahra was taken by other relatives, she would have been married off by now,” her uncle Kamran Aziz told AFP, from their typical one room home where bedding is folded away in the morning and cooking is done on the balcony.

“My wife and I decided we would go against the grain and raise our girls to survive in the world before settling them down.”

Afzal beams that she is now an example for her sister and cousin: “My mind has become fresh.”