NEW YORK: Renowned Pakistani journalist Zubeida Mustafa received the lifetime achievement award from the International Women's Media Foundation at an event held in New York on Wednesday.

Honoured as the first woman in Pakistani mainstream media, Ms Mustafa, 70, worked to enact hiring policies favourable to women during her 30 years at Dawn, the women’s media group said.

Ms Mustafa covered issues that received little attention in her country and were sometimes considered taboo, including breast cancer, contraception and rape.

She paid tribute in her speech to the Pakistani women who followed in her footsteps in journalism, saying that without them, she would not have “earned the title of pioneer”.

Other recipients of awards were Khadija Ismayilova of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Azerbaijan, Asmaa al-Ghoul, a freelance journalist in the Gaza Strip, and Reeyot Alemu, who was a columnist for the independent Ethiopian newspaper Feteh until her arrest in June 2011. They won the courage awards.