Home > 2022 > Pakistan’s ’Aurat March’ 2022: To be or not to be | Nadra Huma Quraishi

Mainstream, VOL LX No 12, New Delhi, March 12, 2022

Pakistan’s ’Aurat March’ 2022: To be or not to be | Nadra Huma Quraishi

Friday 11 March 2022

March 6, 2022

by Nadra Huma Quraishi

On March 8, women around the world mark a day they call their own — International Women’s Day, highlighting achievements and dialoguing about issues still unresolved. The Women’s Day theme this year is #BreakTheBias, underscoring the idea that it is not enough to acknowledge the existence of bias. Action is necessary to achieve equality.

While the rest of the world is devising strategies to improve conditions for women, Pakistani women face the challenge of whether or not they will even be allowed to share their issues on a public forum on this day.

Since 2018, Pakistani feminists have been organising large public demonstrations for Women’s Day called Aurat - the Urdu word for women - March. Opposition to Aurat March has grown in proportion to its popularity and impact.

I have attended the past four marches — the first two in Karachi and then in Lahore, joined at different times by my aunt and daughter, friends, husband and work colleagues. This year I am away from Pakistan and will miss marching with my comrades in arms.

In 2020, the organisers had to obtain a court order from a Lahore court to be allowed to go ahead. The situation has cropped up again this year, with even more vehemence.