Aurat March Pakistan: On International Women’s Day, Pakistan’s ‘Aurat March’ once again made headlines, know why

Thousands of women took to the streets of Pakistan despite efforts by authorities in several cities to stop the march. Known as the Aurat (Women) March, the banners and placards raised by the participants in the rallies related to topics such as divorce, sexual harassment and menstruation also sparked a new controversy. According to Rabel Akhtar, a schoolteacher who was part of the 200-strong crowd in Lahore on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the whole point of the Aurat March is to demand safety and security that women in this country and society are denied. Now we are not going to sit silent. This is our day, this is our time.”

what is woman march

In 2018, Hum Auraten, a women’s volunteer organization in Pakistan, started the Aurat March. This organization organizes Aurat March every year on the occasion of Women’s Day on March 8. In this, it is said to give freedom to women in every field and to take them forward.

Why there was a clash with the police

Videos posted on social media showed several police officers baton-charging protesters as they tried to join the demonstration. Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said in a tweet that the capital’s police chief had been summoned and the officers involved had been suspended. City officials had refused to provide security over the weekend, before a court ordered them to back down, allowing the “polite” counter-protest to go ahead.

Graphic designer Sohela Afzal raised the question that it is ridiculous how we have to go through the same drama every year… Why are they so scared of women demanding their rights? In Karachi, judges rejected a legal challenge by a man to ban a related rally scheduled for the weekend so working women could participate. In the capital Islamabad, organizers refused to comply with orders to confine the gathering to a city park where a woman was gang-raped in February.