Shirkat Gah - Women's Resource Centre

In 1975, Shirkat Gah started as a small, voluntary women’s collective in Pakistan to fight for a gender just society where women are aware of their constitutional and fundamental rights. Forty years later, Shirkat Gah is a leading organisation that advocates women and human rights through a feminist, participatory and democratic model, in which every voice matters and on-ground research drives project outcomes. We have presence across all four provinces of the country. Our main office is located in Lahore and we have regional offices in Karachi and Peshawar, along with six other field stations.

Institutional Evolution of Shirkat Gah

In 1981, Shirkat Gah launched Women’ Action Forum (Khawateen Mahaz-e-Amal) as a platform for individuals and organisations fighting for women’s rights. Until 1984, SG Collective members worked tirelessly in establishing WAF. During the period of 1985-86, the Collective made several key decisions that laid the foundations of how SG functions as an organization today. These included:

1. Establishing SG as a full time institution so that it becomes a more effective resource centre;
2. Working with men as well as women to change attitudes towards women rights and societal change;

Starting in 1986, SG became the Asia Coordination office of the international solidarity network, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML). Extensive action-research on the interface of women, law and customs under the aegis of WLUML’s Women and Law in the Muslim World programme galvanized SG’s outreach strategy.

In January 2013, Khawar Mumtaz, the CEO of Shirkat Gah, relinquished her role to assume her responsibilities as the new Chair of the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), and Farida Shaheed assumed the responsibility of Executive Director.