Khawar Mumtaz

Khawar Mumtaz (born 29 June 1945) is a Pakistani women's rights activist, feminist author and university professor. She is the Former Chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) who served for three consecutive terms from 2013 to 2019. Mumtaz is married to Kamil Khan Mumtaz, an architect, and they have three children: a daughter Samiya Mumtaz, a prominent actress, and two sons. Her great-aunt was Ismat Chughtai, an Urdu novelist and filmmaker. Mumtaz was enrolled in St. Joseph's Convent School, Karachi, Pakistan for primary and secondary education. She completed her higher secondary education from St. Joseph's College, and earned a degree of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Karachi, where she topped in the examination. She has a diploma in French language. She was once offered an opportunity to study at the Sorbonne in Paris. A sense of fairness and sensitivity to discrimination created the spirit and sew the seeds of activism in her, and she became politically aware during the agitation against General Ayub Khan in the late 1960s. By 1977, a series of repressive laws were enacted, including one that called for the stoning of women accused of adultery to death. She is one of the founders of Women’s Action Forum (WAF), which was formed to reject regressive laws introduced by General Zia -ul-Haq regime, and to bring women's issues on political and legislative agenda, and to assert women’s equal rights in Pakistan. She initially started teaching in a university, however, she has to leave the job after she was asked to stop her activism in 1983. Mumtaz is one of three females appointed to coordinate the Shirkat Gah, which is women's rights and development organization engaged in developing research reports, training manuals and advocacy materials, and focuses the issues related to women and environment, women and law, women's reproductive health and rights. She served as the Coordinator and the CEO at Shirkat Gah before joining NCSW as its Chairperson.