Farida Shaheed

Farida Shaheed, a sociologist, has long been a Coordinator of Shirkat Gah - Women's Resource Centre in Pakistan where she developed a highly successful legal consciousness programme that seeks to change laws and policies while simultaneously building grassroots capacity. She is currently Deputy Director of a multi-country research project: Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts: gender, poverty and democratization from the inside out, being led by City University Hong Kong. She helps to...See more

Farida Shaheed, a sociologist, has long been a Coordinator of Shirkat Gah - Women's Resource Centre in Pakistan where she developed a highly successful legal consciousness programme that seeks to change laws and policies while simultaneously building grassroots capacity. She is currently Deputy Director of a multi-country research project: Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts: gender, poverty and democratization from the inside out, being led by City University Hong Kong. She helps to coordinate the international solidarity network: Women Living Under Muslim Laws. Her extensive publications focus on intersecting issues of women's rights, customs and religion, state, governance and development. In 1989 her co-authored book 'Two Steps Forward One Step Back? Women of Pakistan' won the Prime Minister's award. In 1997 she received the Second Annual Women's Human Rights Award of the Women Law & Development International. See less