On Friday, in observance of International Women’s Day, women from all over Pakistan marched in the Aurat, raising their voices against the numerous injustices.
On March 8, 2018, in Karachi, Pakistan hosted its inaugural Aurat March. It was expanded to additional cities the next year, including Hyderabad, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, and Larkana. It was the seventh march since its founding this year.
Women from all walks of life marched for their rights in the nation’s largest cities this year as well. They carried signs that read, “Girls just wanna walk home safe” and “Stop gender-based violence.”
While some protestors demanded an end to enforced disappearances, others carried banners supporting the Palestinian people.
Women organized at Frere Hall in Karachi and marched to Teen Talwar. The attendance this year, nevertheless, didn’t appear that high. Relatively speaking, very few people showed up, and even fewer were open to being interviewed.
Numerous talks spanning a wide range of social concerns were held prior to the march.
Transgender activist Shehzadi Rai discussed at one of these meetings how some people who professed to be pro-transgender actually did superficial things.
In keeping with their session’s motto, “izzat toh deni paregi” (You have to offer respect), she insisted that such “trans-friendly” people now had no choice but “to give us respect.”
In the meantime, Lahori women congregated outside the press club and exhibited artwork. Along with poetry by Habib Jalib and other revolutionaries, the demonstrators also performed them.
The organizers of the Aurat March in Islamabad, however, asserted that the people were shoved by the police and prevented from going to D-Chowk.
