KARACHI: Amina Sohail veers through heavy traffic to pick up her next passenger despite the sight of a woman riding a motorcycle drawing stares.

The 28-year-old is the first woman in her family to enter the workforce, a pattern emer­ging in urban households coming under increasing financial pressure.

“I don’t focus on people, I don’t speak to anyone or respond to the hooting, I do my work,” said Amina, who joined a local ride-hailing service at the start of the year, transporting women through the streets of the city.

Amina used to help her mother with cooking, cleaning and looking after her younger siblings, until her father, the family’s sole earner, fell sick.

According to UN, 21pc of Pakistani women participate in workforce, mostly in informal sector

“The atmosphere in the house was stressful,” she said, with the family dependent on other relatives for money. “That’s when I thought I must work,” said Amina.

“My vision has changed. I will work openly like any man, no matter what anyone thinks.”

‘Get her married’

According to the United Nations, 21 per cent of women participate in Pakistan’s workforce, most of them in the informal sector and almost half in rural areas working in the fields.

“I am the first girl in the family to work, from both my paternal and maternal side,” said Hina Saleem, a 24-year-old phone operator at a leather factory in the industrial area of Korangi.

The move, supported by her mother after her father died, was met with resistance from her extended family. Her younger brother was warned that working could lead to socially unacceptable behaviour, such as finding a husband of her choice.

“My uncles said ‘get her married’,” she said. “There was lots of pressure on my mother.”

Bushra Khaliq, executive director for Women In Struggle for Empowerment (WISE) that 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 said. “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.

The sprawling port metropolis of Karachi, officially home to 20 million people but likely many millions more, is the country’s business centre. It pulls in migrants and entrepreneurs from across the country with the promise of employment and often acts as a bellwether for social change.

Four years ago, 19-year-old Zahra Afzal moved to Karachi to live with her uncle, after the death of her parents, leaving her small village to work as a childminder.

“If Zahra was taken by other relatives, she would have been married off by now,” her uncle Kamran Aziz said, 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.” Zahra beams that she is now an example for her sister and cousin.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2024