Women in this part of the world suffered severe persecution and were denied their rights until the end of the nineteenth century, which forced them to stay at home and to submit to a harsh system of veils called “purdah”, and its traces still remain in a few classes to this day... The Women’s Renaissance Movement at the end of the nineteenth century awakened political and social awareness. Some women’s associations were established, and in 1886 a weekly women’s magazine was published in Lahore called “Tahdheeb al-Niswan.” This newspaper made great efforts for the advancement of Muslim women in India, and in 1913 The Muslim Women's Federation of India was founded by Begum Bhopal.
And when the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah reorganized the Muslim League in India, the Muslim women immediately joined in, and all of them gave their all for the sake of establishing the state of Pakistan, and during this struggle many of them were arrested and imprisoned.
And the role that women played for the independence of Pakistan or for its establishment is no less than the role that Egyptian women played in 1919 when Egypt’s jihad for independence began, and if the veil at that time did not prevent Egyptian women, headed by Safiya Zagloul and Hoda Shaarawy, from holding demonstrations. The Burdah did not prevent Pakistani women from striving for the freedom of their country.
Pakistan's constitution recognizes the right of women to work and earn the same as men.