As Pakistan draws the curtain on Breast Cancer Awareness Month, retired Capt Muhammad Safdar, husband of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, has come under fire for disparaging remarks about women advocating for bodily autonomy. Addressing a religious gathering in Chiniot, he questioned why women championing “mera jism, meri marzi” turned to religious scholars for prayers when diagnosed with cancer. If they claimed ownership of their bodies, he suggested, they should be able to cure themselves. There is something especially troubling about making a woman’s illness the price of her independence. Bodily autonomy concerns the right to consent, to seek medical treatment, to make reproductive decisions and to live without coercion. A woman who believes in her right to make decisions about her body does not surrender her faith by doing so. To suggest otherwise is to misunderstand both the demand for dignity and the solace religion provides in times of suffering.
The irony is difficult to miss. Earlier this month, major government buildings were illuminated pink, as directed by First Lady Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, to promote breast cancer awareness. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also called for early detection and improved access to treatment. Such efforts are particularly necessary in a country where the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s latest estimates put the number of new breast cancer cases at 43,721 and deaths at 20,039 in 2024. An increasing number of studies have identified fear, cultural restrictions, financial difficulties and poor access to healthcare among the barriers preventing Pakistani women from obtaining timely care. Public ridicule, particularly from someone so close to the corridors of power, can hardly help dismantle the stigma these campaigns are trying to overcome.
The problem extends well beyond cancer. According to UNFPA’s 2025 report, only one in three Pakistani women can make decisions about their reproductive health. The World Economic Forum’s latest Gender Gap Report places Pakistan 143rd among 145 economies. The same society that expects women to sacrifice everything for their households often hesitates to grant them authority over their own well-being.
That the rebuke came from his own household makes the episode all the more revealing. Having lost her mother, Kulsoom Nawaz, to cancer in 2018, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz described the controversy as heartbreaking and spoke of the silent battles women and wives fight behind closed doors. Her words carry particular significance coming from Pakistan’s first woman provincial chief minister. Even women occupying the highest public offices are not insulated from attitudes that diminish women’s experiences.
The Constitution guarantees equality before the law and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. These rights belong to women as citizens, regardless of their marital status, beliefs or political opinions. Religious conviction and respect for those rights need not be placed at odds.
If Pakistan is serious about women’s dignity, it must confront the patriarchal prejudices that repeatedly turn their suffering, independence and even their faith into matters for public judgment.
