Positive Pakistani: A battle won

Acclaimed lawyer Navin Merchant took charge of her future when she refused to put down her books

Being married off at an early age and then asked to replace books with pots and pans is a tragedy many women in Pakistan can relate to. Navin Merchant was no exception. After being abruptly pulled out of school, while she was still in grade 10, she was asked to assume her role as a housewife and say goodbye to academics. But this is where her story takes a different trajectory than the conventional one and ends on a surprisingly happy note.

Navin not only pursued her education while fulfilling her duties as a mother and a wife, but she also went on to become a lawyer and consultant for the World Bank.

“I just had to be educated,” says Navin, recalling how she felt as she watched her friends complete their education while she was made to stay at home with expectations to raise a family. According to her in-laws, a woman did not need a career to be happy, but Navin had different aspirations.

For the next two years she frequently visited her parents for unperturbed study sessions and managed to sit for her matric exams. The results were unfortunately unsatisfactory as she had a three-month old infant to look after and also had to deal with the additional strain of keeping her studies a secret. Partly disappointed in herself, Navin eventually came clean in front of her in-laws and temporarily put away her books and decided to focus at home. But she couldn’t shake off the desire to do more with her life and eventually decided to give academics another shot.

Despite being the mother of two daughters this time around, Navin was determined to succeed. She religiously studied each day from 3am to 6am, in order to give her children undivided attention afterwards, and sat for her intermediate exams thoroughly prepared. Seeing Navin’s promising results, her husband, Saleem Merchant, extended his unwavering support and the pair has been working together since.

Following in Saleem’s footsteps, Navin decided to pursue a successful career in law. She started working at a law firm run by one of her husband’s friends where she was presented with her first high court case and managed to score a decisive legal victory. Soon after, she set up her own private firm, Navin Merchant Associates, which was renamed as Merchant Law following her partnership with her husband in 1990.

Her big break came in 2005, however, when she was singled out at a World Bank conference on arbitration and mediation for having a heated debate with the panel of speakers. Due to her knowledge on the subject, she was nominated to oversee the Alternative Dispute Resolution programme to be launched by the International Finance Corporation in the Middle East and North Africa. After completing her seven-year stint for the World Bank in 2013, Navin resumed work at her firm. “With hard work, destiny follows,” she says, advising those facing a similar struggle in life to “always aim high”.

Zainab Saeed is a student, a home tutor and an aspiring journalist. She tweets @zainabssaeed

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, October 5^th, 2014.