First Lady Fashion in Pakistan: Bushra Bibi’s Transcendental Style

Pakistan’s national dress, the shalwar kameez, is a tunic paired with tapered-leg pants– with the addition of a neck or headscarf for women. This gendered uniform has been donned by most Pakistani women in politics since 1947. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan (2018-2022), for the first time in Pakistani history, a first lady, donned a loose Arab-style dress or abaya – a religious dress she pairs with a face-veil or niqab. While the religious attire of first lady Bushra Maneka is largely seen as insignificant, I argue her unusual choice of dress was strategically employed as a means of confirming the Prime Minister’s purported dedication to bring back the golden age of Islam to the country in an appeal to the religious right. Through a critical discourse analysis of the digital engagement and online dialogue associated with the visual depictions of these women, I explore the nexus of national belonging and the “foreign West,” embodiment and gender, and liberalism, modernity and postcolonialism in the Pakistani context.