What is the role of women in Pakistani politics?

Women have only a limited amount of influence in Pakistani politics, and increasing their role is often considered controversial. Pakistan has had a small number of women in leadership roles, (including a female prime minister, Benazir Bhutto), but unfortunately, the proper place of women is still being debated. The main stumbling block to increasing women's role in politics is the influence of the religious groups in Pakistan: there are extremely conservative Muslim clerics who insist that women should remain in the home and not be given positions of authority in government.

It should be noted that not everyone sees things as the clerics do. There are a number of secularists and modernists (especially in the bigger cities) who believe women deserve greater opportunities for participation, and in the middle are the pragmatists, who want to appease the religious groups but still find ways for women to have certain opportunities. There are signs of progress for women: in 2011, about 22% of members of Parliament were female. But the power of the religious groups remains strong, especially in the smaller cities and rural areas. Making matters worse for women, laws that would give them greater civil rights or greater access to leadership positions are often blocked. Still, the women who serve in Parliament as well as a small number of advocacy groups, continue to try to improve things, so that more women will be able to enter politics and gain access to decision-making roles.