ISLAMABAD: Civil society and Aurat Azadi March organisers on Friday rejected what they called religious and rightwing political parties’ propaganda and threats against the march and reiterated to continue their struggle for basic rights.

At a joint press conference, the speakers called on the local administration to take measures to ensure it was held peacefully without any interference from rightwing elements.

The press conference was organised by Aurat Azadi March in collaboration with Women’s Democratic Front (WDF), Awami Workers Party (AWP), Women’s Action Forum, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Mazdoor Kissan Party (MKP) and Progressive Students Federation and others.

They said opponents of the march were oblivious to the reality and suffering of Pakistani women who had been violently victimised and repressed for decades in all walks of life.

They said the march was taking place because of the stark gender inequalities in Pakistan from mass female illiteracy to their economic exploitation within and outside home, to rising domestic and public violence, high levels of child and forced marriages to denial of inheritance and property rights and exclusion in decision-making structures at all levels.

Organisers and civil society representatives say all demands are well within the rights granted to women by Islam and Constitution

The rising feminist movement is an expression of the reality that women are no longer willing to accept patriarchal oppression in the public and private sphere and are now increasing resisting violence and repression they have been undergoing for decades.

Those who are alarmed by these changes must accept that women are not going to retreat into their homes or from claiming their inalienable rights anymore, they added.

WDF President and Aurat Azadi March organiser Ismat Shahjahan said women from all walks of life were on the streets protesting for their rights and it was the responsibility of the state to listen to them, address their demands and come up with a policy framework for women’s emancipation and progress.

She said rising violence from an overdeveloped patriarchal structure had made women’s lives miserable which was why they were now speaking out in such large numbers.

She said the anti-march propaganda was an orchestrated campaign of defamation similar to what took place against all people’s movements in Pakistan by feminist struggles, class struggles or nationalist struggles, because these struggles destabilise the established order of power.

Another organiser, Anam Rathor, said the purpose of the march was to speak out against all forms of violence, inequality and oppression that we face in every aspect of our lives — from killings to forced marriages, from sexual violence to acid attacks, from harassment to moral policing — and to take steps towards the creation of a more just and humane social order.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) member Nasreen Azhar said the campaign against Aurat Azadi March was a sign that women were threatening the very foundations of the oppressive patriarchal order that governs our society.

She defended the right of women and gender minorities to march and call for their rights.

She said the religious right was falsely trying to paint the march organisers as un-Islamic even though all of their demands were well within the rights granted to women by Islam and the Constitution.

Other speakers who came out in full support of the march included AWP Punjab President Ammar Rashid, WAF’s Saadia Bukhari and Tahira Abdullah, HRCP’s Harris Khalique, MKP’s Information Secretary Kamran Khan and Progressive Students Federation’s Minhaj Swati.

They said religious groups had approached the Islamabad city administration and the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to stop the march.

Students of a seminary also defaced a mural that was being painted as a part of the march in G-7. They are also planning to lead counter-protests to intimidate and confront women’s march in Islamabad.

They said the right to freedom of assembly and association was among the fundamental human rights enshrined in the Constitution.

The organisers of the march also presented their manifesto which called for an end to economic exploitation, patriarchal violence, political exclusion, social oppression and public marginalisation of women.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2020