KARACHI, Feb 12: Speakers at a meeting on Tuesday urged the authorities to abolish all the laws that were discriminatory towards women on March 8 which is observed as the Women’s Day.

They were speaking at the meeting on “Activism from 1983 to 2002” organized jointly by the Women’s Action Forum and the Aurat Foundation to mark the first demonstration staged by women in the country on Feb 12, 1983, against the laws discriminatory to women.

They said that the peaceful demonstration was brutally baton- charged by the riot police near the High Court that left many women demonstrators, and a popular poet Habib Jalib who was also among the protesters, injured and many of them were also taken into custody.

They said it was time the government abolished all such laws — like the Hudood Ordinance, Law of Evidence, etc — which on the one hand were causing embarrassment to the country in the international community, and on the other were being resisted by women within the country.

They said that the discriminatory laws were introduced by the last martial law government, so this military government could easily abolish them laws.

They said that on account of a long struggle the Law of Evidence had been watered down and now the statement of two women was considered equal to one man only in matters relating to the Hudood Ordinance and in cases relating to fiscal matters, etc.

They however urged women to continue their struggle as their problems had not yet been solved, the repressive laws were still not abolished and they were still not being given their due rights. They stressed that the struggle should continue till they achieved their goals and women were given all their due rights as equal citizens.

They said that women activism was more aggressive during the oppressive dictatorial regime of Gen Zia as more demonstrations were organized then. But after the reintroduction of democracy, and later during the past couple of years, the false impression was being given that liberalism was reestablishing itself in the country, so activism needed to change its form.

Some other speakers pointed out that now more women were involved in economic activities and fewer found time for activism and demonstrations, which was earlier done on voluntary basis.

They said that a feeling was also spreading among some women that while they were expected to participate in demonstrations voluntarily, the NGO activists were getting fat salaries for doing the same job.

They said that efforts should be made to approach the young generation of women, spread awareness among them regarding their rights and other issues being faced by them so that they could join the struggle for equal status.

Anis Haroon, Sadeqa Salahuddin, Hilda Saeed, Najma Sadiq, Uzma Noorani, Sheen Farukh, Aslam Brohi, Nighat Shirin, and others spoke on the occasion.