Aurat March 2020: 'Mera Jism, Meri Marzi'

At the time of publication, the world as a whole is getting to grips with the latest and most immediate threat facing us all: Covid-19, or the novel coronavirus, which has been designated a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation.

A few weeks ago however, things were much calmer and we celebrated International Women’s Day on the 8th March 2020. As part of this, TFO reached out to supporters of Pakistan’s ‘Aurat March’ (Woman’s March) to see what they had to say about the event.

Here, Mahaa gives us her thoughts:

The International Women’s Day is celebrated on the 8th of March every year. On this day, women around the globe celebrate their freedom, independence, and femininity. Just like the rest of the world, Pakistan celebrates International Women’s Day as well.

But in the last three years, Pakistani women are not only celebrating this day but are also marching for their rights. For the march, Pakistani women will leave their homes to demand their rights directly to authority. In the last two years, the Aurat March has developed into a confrontational program against the patriarchal constructions of society, causing a strong backlash against the participants and organizers of the march.

The Concept Behind This Year’s March

As stated above, this protest for women’s right started three years ago when a couple of equality activists for women, coordinated groups in Pakistan and decided to hold a march on March 8, International Women's Day. These wonderful steps were taken by these groups not only to provide the platform on which to express women’s thoughts and their rights, but also raised the response to women's rights, which society was overlooking brutally.

This group of female equality activists’ essential ideology was that the march could not be underwritten by NGOs or establishments. The marches are planned and premeditated to be diverse and take place in the main cities of Pakistan, including Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, and Quetta.

The aim of the march was to highlight and stop the various acts of violence and harassment women face in their daily lives.  The organizers of this program encouraged an Aurat March strategy which challenged restorative culpability and justice against the violence directed at women in the workplace, at home, in public spaces, abuse, rape, sexual harassment, forced marriages, honor killings, acid attacks, pay disparity and inheritance rights among other human rights violations. It also promoted economic justice, inclusion, and access to public spaces for all. The Aurat March provided a new stimulus to the feminist program in Pakistan, but with that, it put the planners and participants at risk.  

The Aurat March unfortunately faced negative consequences and strong criticism last year from those who refuse to realize and understand the value of this action. Many women received death threats and threats of rape. This clearly demonstrated to me that people with this mentality feel that threats are the correct way to “handle” women who ask for their rights.

“Mera Jism, Meri Marzi” (My Body, My Choice)

The motive and concept behind this slogan was to highlight the issues women are facing in their professional and personal lives, and that it is necessary and correct for women to ‘say no’ and stand up for their rights.  One of the march’s organizers felt that a march with this particular slogan would be very effective, as it allowed women to be vocal about how they tackle real life problems, as part of a societal group that suffers from the most violence.

Women are the main victims of violence but the women who attended the Aurat March also typically belong to a very specific segment of society; one which is educated, is free to choose how they dress, and has the means and independence to go anywhere. This limits the experience of the participants to an affluent and privileged group - they alone cannot make this movement important and effective.

Why was the Aurat March so significant in Pakistan?

According to research of sexual harassment and violence cases, data has shown that on a daily basis, women face sexual harassment and forced marital rape in Pakistan. 

The main motive of this protest march is to provide women freedom and free them from the fear of sexual harassment and inequality.  This includes dressing as they choose and independently going wherever they want. The cultural restrictions and enforced limitations should be lifted. Women should be supported to have the courage to report sexual harassment on their campuses and in their workplaces.

For this undertaking of awareness to be effective, the organizers should work towards attracting victims of abuse and violence to the Aurat March, and along with them, present their demands with their consent and consensus.

The Aurat March also encourages real victims at the March which will make people realize the seriousness of the issue of women's limitations. The minute the real sufferers join the demonstration and tell their own stories, people who do not believe that authoritarianism against women occurs, will be able to re-evaluate their statements and will hopefully be led to believe that issues related to women are prevailing difficulties in society.

Correlating Issues

An amazing thing that occurred at the March was in seeing the transgender community join the protest which is a historic step forward as their rights have been previously neglected badly. One of the picketer activists, Shahzadi, said that she turned down requests from the trans community to appear at the march last year even though the first Aurat March was held two years ago. However, the trans community has been neglected and she wanted to highlight the issues they suffer in Pakistan and commented that, "Unfortunately, no transgender rape law has been made in Pakistan to date," and she wanted to request authorities to consider this request.

She also protested that their community is often humiliated by the police when they go to make a formal complaint also known as an FIR (First Incident Report). She demanded that this issue be resolved with strong political interference. They added that the government has announced steps since 2010 but no implementation has been seen, and the transgender commission has not been formed. In addition to that, the trans community is very aware that there is no separate prison and facilities for their community, which is considered a necessity due to the level of harassment and abuse they face.

Another long-awaited point which was raised at the Aurat March was of women's reproductive rights and matters to do with women’s bodies. As women, we have the right to take care of our bodies as we see fit and our reproductive and sexual cycle is a fundamental human right. In addition "in Pakistan, the maternal mortality rate is 299, per 100,000 live births, which is a cause of extreme shame for us. Every 37 minutes a woman dies," and this often happens due to a lack of high-quality reproductive healthcare and sadly, there is no legal mechanism in place to tackle this head-on.

We hope and pray that this protest brings some positive changes in our society towards women’s rights. We hope to see no more cases like Zainab or similar cases to children like her. We need to put a stop to sexual harassment and violence against women. Whether it is at home or in the workplace, we have to stand up for our rights.