Pakistani Women's Dreams and Ambitions

Ask a Pakistani woman what she dreams of and you will hear things that the men in her life often don't expect.

Career and independence

Pakistani women are entering every profession at increasing rates — medicine, law, engineering, tech, media, business. Many Pakistani women list financial independence as their primary goal — not because they don't want relationships, but because they understand that economic dependence is the root of most of the violence and control they see around them.

Relationships on their terms

Pakistani women increasingly report wanting:

• To choose their own partner — not have one selected by family
• Partners who are partners — not authority figures or children to be managed
• The option to not marry if they haven't found the right person
• Divorce as a real option if a marriage doesn't work — without the social death that currently accompanies it

The generation shift

Pakistani women born after 1995 report dramatically different relationship expectations from their mothers' generation. They have seen the world via social media. They have watched women in other cultures negotiate relationships differently. They want what they've seen is possible.