Mahnoor Omer hopes the case will put public pressure on the government to make sanitary products affordable in a country where they cost too much for most women

For a 25-year-old, seeing her name written on official papers at Lahore’s high court was daunting. But the case of Mahnoor Omer v Federation of Pakistan has now had its first hearing and Omer, a young lawyer from Rawalpindi taking on her government, has moved from relative obscurity to becoming a headline-making activist.

Omer is challenging the country’s “period tax”, which sees only a small proportion of women in Pakistan able to buy sanitary pads thanks to high taxes and duties which, according to Unicef, can add up to 40% to the retail price. One study found that only 16.2% of women in rural areas used pads due to the cost.