ISLAMABAD: Expressing deep concern over the social media campaign by some elements against the organisers of the last week’s Aurat March, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has warned against employing religion-based laws to stifle the voice of women groaning under a patriarchal mindset.

In a statement on Saturday, PPP secretary general Farhatullah Babar said that organisers had not only denied false allegations levelled against them but also exposed how the footage of the images of their protest demonstrations had been doctored to back lies and slander against them.

“The falsification of the footage of the images, including the conflation of the flag of an organiser’s body with that of another country have already been exposed in media talk shows,” he added.

Mr Babar said the extent to which the detractors of the Aurat March were going against women and putting even their lives at risk was both shocking and alarming.

The PPP, he said, called upon the government and law enforcement agencies to provide protection to the participants in the Aurat March against harm to which they had been exposed by malicious false propaganda against them.

“The rationale behind Aurat March and its open criticism of the patriarchal mindset of society on the eve of a globally observed international day of women on March 8 every year must be understood and appreciated,” he said, adding: “It is deplorable that instead of trying to understand, some elements unleashed a campaign to demonise the participants and expose them to violence through false and vile propaganda.”

“The Aurat March should have been seen as an occasion for the patriarchal mindset to recognise the distortions in the society that perpetuate inequality and deny women their rights,” he pointed out.

Mr Babar said it was an occasion to unlearn the numerous biases against women and for the society to think whether a woman was a separate legal entity or a piece of property.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2021