What is the Aurat March and the agenda behind it? Is it crucial for the betterment of society? These are some of the very common questions which often remain conflicted.
To say the least, the march revolves around equality for women, the trans community and nonbinary people. The members of Aurat March, after careful discussion with relevant organizations and related individuals, came up with the charters of demand and their Manifesto that essentially explains what the March is all about.
The three major cities of Pakistan: Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad tackle various issues which the March focuses on.
- i. Firstly, Islamabad focuses on the crisis for care. This Manifesto prioritizes economic justice and aims to provide families with basic household necessities; considering that this aspect has become a major problem due the global pandemic. In addition to these, it also highlights and targets the patriarchal violence within households which has increased for women due to the lockdowns. “The pandemic has disproportionately affected women, minorities, and at-risk communities. It essentially exacerbated a lot of the problems that already existed in our society,” says a volunteer working for Aurat March.
- ii. Moreover, Karachi focuses on patriarchal violence and the Manifesto covers the “A-Z of Patriarchal Violence”. This further includes acid attacks, enforced disappearances, discriminatory legislation against women and the trans community. The Manifesto and the aim of the organizers of the Aurat March through this is essentially to highlight the lack of state and institution involvement in helping to overcome this matter at hand. “Our manifesto, for example, demands incremental institutional changes, such as the addition of women and transwomen medico legal officers, criminalizing the two-finger test and questions related to sexual history conducted during rape investigations,” they explained.
- iii. Lastly, Lahore deals with the healthcare crisis. This Manifesto was put forward to emphasize the rights of gender and sexual minorities. It revolves around a plethora of issues which include: the lack of provision of adequate healthcare to women, gender and sexual minorities, the discrimination between urban and rural areas in provision of healthcare infrastructure, the lack of sensitivity of healthcare providers to female patients, sexual and reproductive health, the male bias in medical research and the abuse, harassment and discrimination faced by women healthcare workers, who once again are at a disadvantage due to the spread of COVID. “It brought health into a sharp global focus. During the lockdown, we had time to self-reflect and observe how women’s health is continuously sidelined.”
Aurat March, 2021
The Manifesto itself defines the Aurat March. However, what gets highlighted and is subject to praise yet is condemned for is the illustration of the march. The demonstrators marched together from the Lahore Press club and the walk ended with the sit-in where they performed the anti-rape anthem. The anthem, A Rapist in Your Path, was originally written in Spanish by the Chilean theatre group, and was later translated into other languages, including Urdu, across the world. Moreover there was a line of “Dirty Laundry” hung around the PIA building where bloody shirts with the relation were written. This includes uncles(chachu, taya, mamo),teachers, bosses etc. This was a mean to expose the domestic and sexual abuse and violence that many women had to endure. Furthermore, during this time dance and singing performances were held.
Despite the positive intention of the organizers and protesters, they were still subject to great criticism because with the mode of social media, several facts and false statements were merged which revolved around the objection of the performances held at the March. These were labeled as “vulgar” and “disruptive” and anti-Islamic to an extent. This situation was further aggravated after the spread of false information which included the French flag being seen at the Aurat March in Islamabad. This deemed the march as a conspiracy to promote “western debauchery” in Pakistan. However, this was soon nullified as the flag contained the colours red, white, and purple while the French flag had the colours blue, white, and red. Ultimately, the claim of “foreign agenda” proved to be untrue as the flag was of the Women Democratic Front. In addition to these rumours, videos of several slogans chanted at Aurat March in Karachi were edited into being blasphemous in nature. As the words “Ansar” and “Orga” were changed into something else which resulted in several death threats being issued to the participants and organizers. However, this misconception was also cleared once the organizers of Aurat March released the original video.
It is obvious that these backlashes and oppositions towards the march are due to the lack of awareness. However, the Manifesto and aims of the march prove that it is only targeting major social issues. The mode of protests are through art which can be seen through the form of posters, dancing and singing performances. All of these modes are of self expression and of a peaceful protest and once someone looks at the aim of the march it is made clear that it prioritizes not only viewing women and the trans community as equals but also being treated so in society.
