Pakistan ends sales tax on sanitary products in fight against period poverty

Pakistan ends sales tax on sanitary products in fight against period poverty Submitted by Florence Ingleby on Thu, 07/02/2026 - 10:00 The move to abolish the 18 percent tax is a significant step in addressing menstrual injustice across Pakistan Women’s rights activist and human rights lawyer Mahnoor Omer, 25, with children during a workshop in Pakistan, where she teaches reading and writing (supplied) Off Bushra Mahnoor grew up in Attock, in Pakistan ’s Punjab province, where sanitary pads were carefully rationed among six menstruating women in her household – a reality reflected in many homes across the province. In a home shared with her mother and four sisters, supplies often ran low, and the cost of pads, classed as non-essential goods by the government, meant every purchase had to be weighed and stretched. Mahnoor, 26, remembered how the stockpile was carefully watched over and had to be divided between them, and the strain this caused at home.