Pakistani woman industrialist set to release ‘explosive’ autobiography

Begum Salma Ahmed’s own grit and her determination to get the women out of their shells, especially in the sub-continent, truly sets her apart from many women of her generation. Based in Karachi, Begum Salma Ahmed one of the first woman industrialists of Pakistan, she is the founder-president of Pakistan Association of Women Entrepreneurs (PAWE) and was the first president of the International Federation of Women Entrepreneurs (IFWE). She is also the president of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WCCI) which happens to be the third country in the SAARC to have a women’s chamber of Commerce after Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

‘The reason why we went ahead to form WCCI last year was because there was this strong feeling among women entrepreneurs to be out of the clutches of the male-dominated and mafia-controlled chambers of commerce in Pakistan. In most of the existing chambers, women were not adequately represented. We simply wanted autonomy,’ explains Begum Ahmed…