In the 1960s and 1970s, Pakistani society—including its universities and colleges—was largely shaped by secular and progressive values. Western-style dress was common, and hijabs were rarely seen in public life. This began to change dramatically with the rise of General Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamisation policies in the late 1970s.

His regime imposed modest dress codes in public institutions and promoted religious orthodoxy, gradually normalising the hijab and burqa in educational and professional spaces. Yet this visible shift was only a surface manifestation of a much deeper transformation: a wave of Islamic extremism that swept across the region throughout the 1980s and beyond.

The United States’ Cold War strategy to curb Soviet influence in Afghanistan by weaponising Islamic militancy had far-reaching, unintended consequences, reshaping Pakistan’s ideological and political landscape. By funnelling arms, money, and propaganda through Pakistan to support the Afghan Mujahideen, Washington helped unleash a wave of militant religiosity.

Under Zia-ul-Haq’s military rule, US-backed initiatives—ranging from the expansion of madrassas to the distribution of jihadi textbooks and state-sponsored propaganda—fostered an atmosphere of extremism.

Jihad was elevated to both a policy tool and a personal ideal, as a generation was raised on the mythology of holy war against communism. What began as a calculated geopolitical move evolved into a long-lasting ideological shift, embedding militant Islamism in the region, well beyond the Cold War’s demise.

In early 1979, US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski urged the Carter administration to support anti-government fighters in Afghanistan, seeing the country as a proxy front against the USSR. On 3 July 1979, President Jimmy Carter authorised covert aid to the Mujahideen—six months before the Soviet invasion of 24 December—launching Operation Cyclone, a CIA-led campaign that deeply influenced........

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