Pakistan's women rally for rights despite threats from right-wing groups

Marches and vigils taking place throughout major cities in run-up to International Women’s Day

People take part in a march organised by activists in Islamabad before International Women's Day is celebrated on March 6. AFP

Women across Pakistan are gearing up for rallies despite threats of violence and intimidation by right-wing groups.

Public vigils, poetry recitals, seminars and marches have taken place in cities in the run-up to International Women’s Day on Tuesday.

Celebrations of the annual event have polarised people in Pakistani. In 2018, Aurat March, which is Urdu for Women's March, was observed by a few thousand young, educated and mostly upper-middle class participants.

Four years on, it has grown into a potent social movement across class and ethnicity, rattling conservatives.

Religious parties, such as the Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat-e-Ulema Pakistan (F), have denounced the march and its organisers as “anti-Islamic”. They have taken issue with some of its slogans, such as “my body, my right” (mera jism, meri marzi).

Organisers are accused of demanding greater promiscuity and acceptance of same-sex relations, while promoting obscenity. During the past two years, religious parties have held rival “modesty marches “.

“They want to frame the debate as feminism versus religion,” said activist and President of Women Democratic Front (WDF), Ismat Raza ShahJahan, from Islamabad. “But it is not so simple. For us, this movement is about regaining our political and economic rights.”

Imran Khan sympathetic to critics of march

Pakistan’s Minister of Religious Affairs, Noorul Haq Qadri, this month wrote to Prime Minister Imran Khan, asking him to declare March 8 as International Hijab Day. Mr Khan, once a playboy cricket star who has reinvented himself as a born-again Muslim politician, is widely seen as sympathetic to critics of the march.

“Protest is our constitutional right and no government can take that away from us,” said Leena Ghani, an artist and march volunteer in Lahore. “The police have assured us protection for our main rally on Tuesday.”

Ms Ghani said Women’s March organisers have no issue with their opponents holding a rival rally. “All we ask is they take place at a different time and at a separate location to avoid any violence or attacks on us,” she said.

Opponents of the Aurat March have sought to discredit the organisers as foreign-funded, non-governmental groups. Participants have previously faced threats of rape and death on social media.

Last year, opponents of the march circulated edited images accusing participants of blasphemous slogans. In Pakistan, scores have been lynched and killed in mob violence relating to often-baseless accusations of blasphemy.

Man accused of blasphemy stoned to death in Pakistan — in pictures

But Pakistan’s civil society appears largely undaunted.

“Our voice is getting louder,” said Amar Sindhu, a prominent civil rights activist and a volunteer for the Women Action Forum in Hyderabad. “Yes, there is a backlash by repressive forces. But we are gradually gaining space. It will be a long and hard struggle.”