PHOTOS: 12 Pakistani women who dared to lift the veil

Though instability continues to plague Pakistan and many areas are dominated by social conservatism, some of the country's more affluent women have worked to fashion a very different kind of lifestyle for themselves. From being a pilates instructor to a rock climber, meet the feisty women who have broken away from tradition and shattered stereotypes.    Ansa Hasan, a marketing manager at Porsche Pakistan, gestures as she prepares for an upcoming event, outside the Porsche showroom in Lahore.


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Interior designer Zahra Afridi kicks a punching bag during a kickboxing training session at her home in Islamabad. Afridi runs her own interior design company. Her most recent project was a Classic Rock Coffee cafe in Islamabad.

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Sarah and her brother, artist Usman Ahmed (second right), smoke a water pipe, also known as a narghile, as they sit with friends at home in Islamabad.

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Interior designer Zahra Afridi uses a circular saw as she sculpts a stone guitar outside the Classic Rock Coffee cafe in Islamabad.

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Rock climber Nazia Parveen descends during training in Islamabad February 15, 2014. Parveen is originally from a Federally Administered Tribal Area. 

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Pilates instructor Zainab Abbas leads a class at her fitness studio in Lahore.

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Erum Ahmed, chief executive officerof the textile retail brand So Kamal, talks to workers as she visits a factory in Faisalabad. 

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Aleena Raza gets ready for a party in her dressing room in Lahore. She manages the textile retail brand So Kamal, which is owned by her mother, Erum Ahmed.

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Sana Mir, captain of Pakistan's women's cricket team, attends a training session in preparation for the 2014 International Cricket Council World Twenty20 competition in Muridke.

Mir was enrolled in an engineering degree at a national university, but left to pursue her passion for cricket.

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Educationalist and model Fatima uses her mobile phone while her Filipino domestic worker holds her glass of water at her house in Lahore.

Fatima is the CEO of Beaconhouse School System, a network of private schools founded by her mother-in-law.

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Naadiya Manzur, director of Treehouse Nursery and Kindergarten school, watches television with her husband Omar and son Zidaan at her house in Islamabad.

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Interior designer Zahra Afridi talks to a carpenter at a workshop on the outskirts of Islamabad.