ISLAMABAD: Activists of rights organisations, political and religious parties and other civil society organisations on Sunday arranged parallel events in different cities to mark International Women’s Day in an unprecedented show of strength though also exposing the prevailing divergence of views in society on women’s rights issues.

The major events, including rallies and marches, were held in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta and Sukkur amid tight security in the wake of threats by some religious groups to prevent the Aurat Azadi marches terming them “vulgar and against the religion”.

The federal capital witnessed an incident of violence when the opponents of the Aurat Azadi march after exchanging some heated arguments with the marchers pelted them with stones outside the National Press Club, inflicting minor injuries on some people.

The Islamabad administration later decided to register a case against those who pelted the marchers, mostly women, with stones as they had not fulfilled the promise of leaving the place near the press club before the start of the Azadi March there at 3pm.

The Haya March of Lal Masjid-affiliated Jamia Hafsa students had culminated at the National Press Club, which was the starting point of the Aurat Azadi March. The Haya March organisers had assured the police and the administration that they would leave the place before the start of the Azadi March. The police had erected a tent in the middle of the road to avoid a possible clash.

Another rally had been taken out from the NPC by the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) women wing. It ended at the nearby China Chowk, where party chief Senator Sirajul Haq announced that his party would not give tickets to those who would not give share of inheritance to their daughters and widows.

Carrying placards and chanting slogans, a large number of women and men marched to D-Chowk at Constitution Avenue on the call of the Women Democratic Front (WDF) in Islamabad.

One of the Azadi March organisers, Anam Rathor, read out the charter of demands including end to all forms of violence, enforced marriages, sexual violence, acid attacks, harassment, moral policing, women’s domestic confinement and servitude; the oppression of transgender and other gender and sexual minorities.

In Lahore, rights activists gathered at the Lahore Press Club. Carrying placards, they beat the drums, chanted slogans and clapped. The rally passed through Egerton Road till Aiwan-i-Iqbal.

In Karachi, women activists staged the Aurat March outside Frere Hall. Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto leader Ghinwa Bhutto also participated in the march.

In Quetta, women activists gathered in front of the press club where a march was organised by Aurat Alliance. Led by Hameeda Hazara, Qamarunnisa, Hameeda Noor and other women rights activists, the participants carrying placards and banners inscribed with their demands marched on different roads.

In Sukkur, a woman rally was taken out from Lab-i-Mehran Garden. The Aurat March culminated at the press club, where the marchers recited poetry by Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai.

An event was also arranged in Thar’s Nangarparkar by Sindh Human Rights Department to mark Women’s Day.

In Badin supporters of the proscribed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat shut down the town of Khoski and protested against the Aurat March. They insisted that the event had been arranged by “misguided women”.

Speaking at Women of the World Conference in London, PPP parliamentary leader in Senate Sherry Rehman highlighted the contributions of former premier Benazir Bhutto and Asma Jehangir in the movement against legal rights and dictatorship. She said the women were marching to seek an end to forced marriages, honour killings, domestic, sexual and workplace violence and harassment, against economic discrimination and social injustice.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2020