Rallies under the banner of Aurat March were taken out from across the country to mark the International Women’s Day.
Starting from the National Press Club Islamabad, a peaceful and well-organised ‘Aurat Azadi March’ with Azadi March van on Sunday ended at D-Chowk, with participation of hundreds of men and women who raised their voice against patriarchal forces and for women’s rights in the country.
A big number of people participated in the ‘Aurat Azadi March’, holding placards inscribed with many slogans such as ‘make affordable public safe transport for women’, ‘I march because they won’t even admit that women’s right are violated, they are raped’, ‘my body, my choice’ and ‘down with patriarchy’.
Most of the participants of the march were young women and men, who were seen vigorously and actively chanting slogans in favour of their demands.
Speaking on the occasion, Women Democratic Front (WDF) President and leading organiser Ismat Shahjahan said, “We reject the vicious religious and political right-wing’s propaganda and threats against the march”.
She said that the opponents of the march were oblivious to the lived reality and suffering of Pakistani women, “who have been violently victimised and repressed for decades” in all walks of life.
Shahjahan claimed that the march was taking place because of the stark gender inequalities in Pakistan, from mass female illiteracy to their economic exploitation within and outside the home, rising domestic and public violence, high levels of child and forced marriages, denial of inheritance and property rights, and exclusion in decision making structures at all levels.
“The rising feminist movement is an expression of the reality that women are no longer willing to accept patriarchal oppression in the public and private sphere and are now increasingly resisting the violence and repression they have been undergoing for decades,” she said, adding that those who are alarmed by these changes must accept that women are not going to retreat to their homes or move back from claiming their inalienable rights anymore.
While explaining the difficulties that have been faced by the organisers for getting permission from the city administration, Shahjahan said that it was very surprising that through the city administration the government was asking the organisers about the source of funding for the march. “We told them that we raised funds, from Rs 500 to Rs 100 [from our pockets], but you tell us about the $33 billion the PTI got as a charity from Arab countries,” she recalled.
Speaking on the occasion, another organiser, Anam Rathor, said that the purpose of the march was to speak out against all forms of violence, inequality and oppression that women face in every aspect of their lives, from killings to forced marriages, from sexual violence to acid attacks, from harassment to moral policing, and to take steps towards the creation of a more just and humane social order.
She said that the organisers saw gender oppression as being linked to other forms of exploitation, including those based on class, nation and religion, and that women’s emancipation was not possible without fighting against the overall economic structures of capitalism and feudalism that bring misery to millions of women and men.
On the other hand, different right-wing parties also held a rally at the same time at the same venue (National Press Club). The participants of the marches holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans ‘my life, God’s will’, ‘respect of women, respect of nation’ and ‘we are the mothers, sisters and daughters’ demanded equal curriculum and equal opportunities of education, end of harassment culture at workplaces, separate women universities and hospitals and enforcement of brilliant principals of Islam in the country.
Meanwhile, the ‘Aurat Azadi March’ was marred by a stone-pelting incident at the time when the march was about to move from the National Press Club to D-Chowk. The incident left several people injured and saw the arrest of a burka-clad man.
A few participants of the march began throwing stones at the gathering in front the press club, prompting people to hurriedly vacate the venue.
Police and organisers struggled to control the situation, as shoes and sticks were also thrown towards the crowd by miscreants.
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