ABSTRACT
Postfeminism discourses are contradictory in nature and contain both feminist and anti-feminist themes within its rhetoric. Imelda Whelehan remarks that while postfeminism may use ‘feminist sentiments to justify certain behaviours or choices’, these sentiments no longer have links to ‘their political or philosophical origins’. Feminism in Pakistan developed within a distinct and complicated socio-political environment, including its unique politics, culture, religion, and history. Gender roles are constructed through traditional social values based on women’s ability to reproduce. In Pakistan, a woman is known through her relationship to men, which shifts over the course of her life, that is the roles of daughter, wife, and mother. While feminism in Pakistan has developed within the larger women’s movement, it would be inaccurate to state that the women’s rights movement in Pakistan was built only on feminist ideology and principles. The women’s movement, within which today’s feminist movements in Pakistan have evolved, can be identified as having three indigenous waves.
