A 25-year-old Pakistani woman has taken the government to court demanding an end to the "period tax" on sanitary pads.
Mahnoor Omer, who grew up in Rawalpindi, has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Islamabad High Court, arguing that taxing menstrual hygiene products violates women's constitutional right to equality and dignity.
Mahnoor Omer vs Federation of Pakistan
In September, Omer and her lawyer, Ahsan Jahangir Khan, filed a case, "Mahnoor Omer vs Federation of Pakistan" naming several departments, including the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), the National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR), the Ministry of Finance, and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The petition says such high taxation treats a basic need as a luxury item, which is illogical and reinforces gender inequality.
School Stigma to Social Change
In an interview with Al Jazeera, she recalled hiding pads inside her shirt sleeve at school "like a drug addict hiding a substance." She said teachers would scold anyone who spoke openly about menstruation. One of her classmates even told her that her mother considered pads a "waste of money".
A lawyer herself, Omer first got involved in human rights work as a teenager, when she and her friends made "dignity kits" for low-income women in their neighbourhood. "That's when it hit me. If middle-class families think this way, imagine how out of reach these products are for others," she said.
Violation of Pakistan's constitutional rights
Omer's petition says that these taxes are unfair to women because they make essential hygiene products expensive. This goes against Pakistan's Constitution, which promises equality, dignity, fair treatment, and social justice for all citizens, the petition argues.
Jahangir Khan describes the lawsuit as a matter of justice, not just taxation. "It's a tax on a biological function," he explains. "Men don't face it, so why should women?" He feels that Pakistan's male-dominated policymaking has long overlooked women's realities.
Cost of sanitary pads in Pakistan
In Pakistan, the government charges 18 per cent sales tax on locally made pads and 25 percent customs tax on imported ones or on the materials used to make them. When local taxes are added, UNICEF says the total tax may go up to 40 per cent.
A regular pack of 10 sanitary pads in Pakistan costs around Rs 450. The average monthly income in the country is about Rs 33,000. That means the price of one pack is equal to the cost of a family meal of rotis and dal for a low-income family of four.
If the 40 per cent tax on sanitary pads were removed, the price would fall to around Rs 270.
According to the UNICEF and WaterAid data, only 12 per cent of Pakistani women use sanitary pads and the rest rely on cloth or other unsafe materials.
