WOW Pakistan
WOW Pakistan was the first WOW Festival in South Asia, beginning in 2016 with WOW Karachi, and has since become one of the most vibrant and far-reaching expressions of the WOW movement globally. Produced by the British Council Pakistan in collaboration with local partners, the festivals have amplified the voices of women and girls across all regions and walks of life.
From its inception, WOW Pakistan has focused on the intersection of arts, education, and community engagement to spotlight women’s economic participation, girls’ access to education, gender-based violence, representation in media and politics, and cultural storytelling and preservation.
There have been physical festivals in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2023, 2024 and 2025 and two digital festivals in 2021 and 2022. In 2024 and 2025 the Festival took place in Lahore, and WOW Pakistan will return to Karachi for its 10th birthday in early 2026. The ambition of the festival has always been to create an inclusive and empowering space that pushes at the boundaries of gender conventions. WOW Pakistan continues to have a strong focus on climate change and the festival has had sustainability at its heart since 2019.
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Events have included music and poetry performances, theatre, mentoring sessions, panel discussions, and art exhibitions – held in locations ranging from academic institutions and heritage buildings to public parks and city streets.
In 2021, the WOW Pakistan Virtual Festival reached a national and international audience online, expanding its impact despite the pandemic. It featured sessions in Urdu, Punjabi and English, and included powerful conversations with activists, artists, educators and youth leaders, especially from underrepresented communities including Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.
WOW Pakistan stands out for its multilingual, multi-city, and multi-platform approach. It has created space for joyful resistance and strategic dialogue – fuelled by the belief that equality must be for all, across every province and every identity.
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About the organisers
WOW in Pakistan is co-curated by the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Institute (ECDI Pakistan) and Raabia Qadir, in partnership with the British Council.
ECDI is a not-for-profit organisation based in Karachi that envisions an equitable society and creates space for women, girls and people marginalised by poverty to realise their socioeconomic potential. The institution was established in 1990 to address women's developmental concerns and is now a recognised leader in Pakistan’s Enterprise and Pro-Poor Market Development industry. ECDI aims to create an enabling environment for the economic advancement of women and advocacy for integration of creators at the margin into mainstream markets. Their work connects women and girls to opportunity, holds space for their stories and fosters critical conversations that ensure voice, visibility, access and recognition. ECDI has been curating WOW in Pakistan since 2016.
