Nasra M. Shah (eel.). Pakistani Women: A Socioeconomic Demographic Profile. Islamabad: Pakistan Institute of Development Economics/Honolulu: East-West Center. 1986. xliv+412 pp.lllus., bibliog., index. Price: US$12.oo for hard cover; US$ 10.00 for paperback.

Until very recently, women did not claim the attention of academicians in Pakistan. Short of cliche-ridden write-ups glorifying their exalted and sometimes imagined roles, little else was written to reveal the reality of women in the country’s tribal, feudal, changing society. The exceptions have been reports and case studies, mostly commissioned by the Government or by international agencies. These, however, have remained confined to departmental files and a limited readership. The few titles which have appeared in the last ten years or so, besides a few autobiographies (e.g. Jahanara Shah Nawaz’s, Shaista Ikramullah’s), include Rashida Patel’s book on the family laws, Parveen Shaukat Ali’s study of women in the Muslim world and Kishwar Naheed’s collection, in Urdu, of papers on some aspects of women in Pakistan.