even years ago, Mrs Anwar set up a dairy farm on the outskirts of Islamabad. Now she is planning to dispose of it. The entrepreneurial venture has resulted in consistent losses and she is tired of the challenges she faces as a businesswoman.

“The society is male-dominated. Following this experience, I have concluded that we, women still have to struggle to make a mark. Too often, we get cheated by predominantly male labour,” she says.

From a distance it might seem that the space for women trying to set up and operate independent businesses has increased, particularly in urban and peri-urban areas. One sees women driving scooties and bikes and running small businesses. One also sees them helping others in all kinds of work. There is an impression that many more work independently, at various scales and levels. However, from Mrs Anwar’s account it seems that the visible change notwithstanding, some administrative challenges remain and can be very hard to overcome.

Mrs Anwar says she started her business with a clear realization that people in her neighbourhood, including her family, were not getting pure milk. “We started with one buffalo. Gradually we bought more and reached 200 animals in our care. The number has now come down to less than 100 and I am seriously planning to quit at the earliest.”

She says the business environment is marred by rampant fraud and that the police and the courts do not make access to justice easy. “It was very challenging for me, a woman, to deal with the fraud. One had to take the matter to the courts and chase the police… I am sorry to report that women are not respected in these places.”

Another reason she is quitting, she says is that the government cannot guarantee the cost of her inputs but wants to strictly enforce the price of her output. “We lost precious local breeds of animals through neglect,” she laments. “We suffered a huge loss.”

“There were three to four incidents when people working for me stole from me and just left. The losses ran into hundreds of thousands over the past couple of years. For this, there was no remedy. Some unscrupulous people in the area sought to benefit from the fact that a woman was running the business. They would come and harass my workers,” she says. She adds: “I am educated, confident and determined. However, the society is patriarchal and there is no enabling environment. It causes administrative hurdles.”

“I an educated, confident and determined but the patriarchal environment is not enabling. It creates administrative hurdles.”

Rabia Farhan, another entrepreneur who runs a small organic bakery in the town, started her business five years ago. Initially, she catered to online orders as well as holding a weekly pop-up shop at the Islamabad Farmers’ Market. “Soon the world was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. I moved my entire business to an online store accessed via the website. Overtime, it became popular and I received kind offers from some prestigious stores in Islamabad to display and sell my products on their shelves too.”

Once the pandemic ended, she began setting up weekly pop-up shops at the Islamabad Farmers’ Market and occasionally at some local bazaars. To scale her business up, she opened a brick-and-mortar bakeshop. She also become a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“Women are making a positive impact on society and the economy. However, it’s not easy. Being a woman in a male-dominated society, we face many hurdles every day.

“We, the women, need to stay together; hold hands and be prepared to work with our male counterparts,” she says.

“Looking back, we see some progress in terms of women’s acceptability in the society as business owners and entrepreneurs. But it is often two steps forward, one step back because of the challenges women face,” says Sabiha Shaheen, head of the non-government organisation Bargad which works for women and youth empowerment.

Shaheen says there has been some progress and there is greater acceptability in terms of the mobility and independence. “In higher education, girls have outnumbered boys for the past few years. This means that we will see more women in many professions in future. This is encouraging.”

However, for women in business many challenges persist.

“At a minimum, they have the responsibility of taking care of work as well as domestic spheres,” she says, adding, “Along with this internal challenge and fatigue they have to face administrative obstacles in our male-dominated society.

“The administrative environment is still not fully supportive of women,” she concludes.

The writer is a staff member. He can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com