Farida Shaheed


Farida Shaheed is a Pakistani sociologist and feminist human rights activist. In 2012, she was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. She heads the Shirkat Gah women's resource centre in Pakistan, and is known for her extensive work on gender and class analysis, both in Pakistan and more globally.

Work

Shaheed has over 25 years of research and activist experience, using a gender and feminist lens on issues of rural development, labour, culture, religion and the state. She has particularly focused on promoting and protecting cultural rights through policies and projects for marginalised communities, including women, the impoverished, religious and ethnic minorities. Shaheed is also an expert in international, regional and national negotiations, including within the United Nations and Pakistan.
Shaheed is a founding member of the Pakistan women's rights network, Women's Action Forum and a member of the transnational feminist network Women Living Under Muslim Laws.

Awards and recognition

On 12 November 2014, Shaheed was awarded the International Award UCLG – Mexico City Culture 21, for her work on gender, culture, religion and the state. She had previously received several other awards, including the Pakistan Prime Minister's Award for her co-authored book, Two Steps Forward, One Step Back.

Selected publications

In 2010, Shaheed authored the article Contested Identities: Gendered Politics, Gendered Religion in Pakistan for the special edition of Third World Quarterly.
In 1998, Shaheed edited with Sohail Akbar Warraich, Cassandra Balchin and Aisha Gazdar, the book Shaping Women's Lives: Laws, Practices and Strategies in Pakistan. It was published by Shirkat Gah.
In 1987, she wrote the book Women of Pakistan: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back? with Khawar Mumtaz, chronicling Muslim women's movements in South Asia from the turn of the 20th century up till the mid-1980s=27 November 2014