Shahnaz Bukhari (or Bokhari) is a Pakistani clinical psychologist and women's rights activist. She is founder and director of the

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

, Progressive Women's Association (PWA), which documents and opposes

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence (GBV) or sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), violent, violence primarily committed by Man, men or boys against woman, women or girls. Such violence is often considered hat ...

Education and work

She holds a Master's of Science from

Punjab University Punjab University may refer to: India * Punjab Agricultural University, a state agricultural university in Ludhiana, Punjab * I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, a state university in Kapurthala, Punjab * Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Techn ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

. After graduation, she worked as a family counselor in Saudi Arabia for seven years. On returning to Pakistan in 1984, Bukhari observed that there were no services for victims of violence and resolved to fill the void. She founded the Progressive Women's Association (PWA) the following year, an organization to help female victims of social and domestic violence. In 1994, the PWA also began taking on cases of acid and burn victims. She also edits and publishes the magazine ''Women's World''. The same year, the PWA successfully lobbied Prime Minister

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...

to have all-female police stations established. In 1999, Bukhari converted her family home in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

into AASSRA, Pakistan's first shelter home for battered women with children. Bukhari and the Progressive Women's Association have uncovered over 5,675 stove-death victims as part of the 16,000 cases they have documented of violence against women. From 1994 to 2008, the PWA documented 7,800 cases of acid attacks in the

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

area. In 2001, Bukhari was arrested for "abetting an attempt to commit adultery" after sheltering a woman from an abusive husband at AASSRA. She was cleared of the charges two years later. According to Bukhari, she and her family have also received numerous threats as well as subject to frequent police raids.

Personal life

She is the single parent of two sons and two daughters, the eldest of which serves as her chief assistant. Her former husband lives in the United States.

Awards and recognitions

Bukhari won the Civil Courage Prize of the US-based Train Foundation in 2003, awarded for "steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk — rather than military valor." One year later, Women's eNews named her one of "21 Leaders for the 21st Century". She is also recipient of Weimar human rights award 2001.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bukhari, Shahnaz Living people Pakistani human rights activists Pakistani women's rights activists Pakistani psychologists Pakistani women psychologists Pakistani civil rights activists Muslim reformers People from Rawalpindi University of the Punjab alumni Year of birth missing (living people)