Women’s Safety and Security in Urban Pakistan

Abstract

The study explores the issue of women's security and safety in urban Pakistan. It targets issues that women face in everyday life in cities, including harassment in public transport, unsafe public spaces, restricted mobility, and inadequate enforcement of laws to protect women. The study emphasizes that despite the advancement of awareness and legislative changes, social norms and cultural attitudes, as well as shortcomings in governance, continue to limit women's freedom and their role in city life. It also investigates the contribution of urban infrastructure such as street lighting, public transport, surveillance and safe public spaces to women's feelings of security. The results indicate that policy and institutional accountability, as well as urban planning, are important in improving women's safety in addition to police action. The study concludes that joint action of government, civil society and urban planners is crucial to establish safer cities where women are able to move freely and equally involved in social and economic life. The present study takes a qualitative approach of secondary data analysis based on academic articles, reports and policy documents to analyze women's safety and security in urban Pakistan.