She lectured as a visiting professor on Mediterranean History at Cairo University in 1977. Three years later, Waddy authored "Women in Muslim History". She chronicled the lives of Muslim women across history whose achievements are not known to an average Western citizen and used English secondary sources. Three weeks following Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984, Waddy was invited to lecture at the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore's Shantiniketan ashram in Calcutta and went on to give a talk at the Islamic medical institute Hamdard Pakistan. She received the Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Distinction) in 1990, one of the most decorated awards in Pakistan, for "for her contribution to the understanding of Pakistan, and particularly its women, in the West."