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Arey, March 8 is over and I barely heard about the Aurat March happening this time around. What happened — have the feminists finally gone into hiding?

Oh, it must be because of the loss of the “foreign funding” I have confidently (yet baselessly) accused them of having gotten previously, which I think the administration of my dearest Trump has rescinded recently. Or maybe they didn’t do their annual show of vulgarity on public (read: men’s) streets this time because their fathers threatened to give them a beating if they did not put their hundred per cent into doing their many unpaid, unacknowledged jobs, like serving us warm enough sehri and iftaar. Serves these sinful women right for having the audacity to chant “Khud Khaana Garam Karlo (Warm Your Own Food)” in previous years, LOL!

But wait — before we get carried away celebrating the supposed disappearance of feminists, let’s take a moment to ask: where are the feminists now?

If you have spent any time on Pakistani Twitter (now known as X), you have probably seen this question thrown around whenever a case of gender-based violence (GBV) makes the news. A woman is murdered by her brother, a girl is assaulted at the park, a workplace harassment case surfaces, and suddenly, the same people who spent the entire year ridiculing feminists and dismissing their demands now demand to know why Aurat March isn’t out on the streets protesting and issuing elaborate statements on social media against the said crimes. The irony is, of course, lost on them.

The selective outrage of “where are the feminists?”

At its core, this question is not a genuine call for accountability — it is a distraction screaming of underlying misogyny. It assumes that feminists alone are responsible for addressing gendered violence, while society at large can remain passive. More than that, it ignores the emotional and physical toll of this work; many of the issues feminists are publicly fighting against also affect them in their personal lives, making it impossible for them to react individually to every single case that surfaces.

And yet, the people who ask this question every time a GBV case goes viral conveniently forget that feminists are the only ones consistently pushing for systemic change, and it is partly thanks to their public outrage and labour that society has started to recognise these issues as criminal enough to be reported in the first place.

Feminist activists have fought for the passage of workplace harassment laws; feminist groups like the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) have led campaigns for anti-rape legislation; feminist political organisations like the Sindhiani Tehreek have led the resistance against the grabbing of indigenous land and water rights; feminist lawyers represent victim-survivors when no one else will; feminist journalists report on these issues despite online harassment; and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

On the other hand, the people demanding to know “where the feminists are” never ask the same of lawmakers, state officials, or religious leaders — the very people who actually have the power to prevent these crimes.

One can’t help but wonder: where were these critics when Aurat March participants were being tear-gassed, baton-charged, and met with violent counter-protests? Or when organisers received death threats simply for demanding basic rights?

The feminists have been there all along — getting attacked, getting arrested, and still showing up. You just weren’t looking.

The feminist movement is evolving — are you?

Most detractors are under the false impression that Pakistan’s feminist movement is limited to a single-day spectacle. This may be one reason why they are detractors in the first place, with the other, arguably more likely reason being that they are purely bad faith actors — because, let’s be real, what person would oppose equal rights in good faith?

Regardless of the exact reason(s) behind one believing in this misconception, it’s important to put it to rest.

As we speak, feminists are organising against the proposed construction of canals along the Indus River, which will strip Sindh of its resources. They are recovering Hindu and Christian girls who have undergone forced conversions, advocating for the restoration of student unions, and fighting for the preservation of the arts in Pakistan. They are on the frontlines — sometimes at great personal risk — fighting for labour rights, environmental justice, and against inflation. The space for these struggles is often dominated by cisgender men due to the patriarchal influences within the left wing, further relegating feminists to the more controversial “women’s issues”, but that doesn’t mean their labour in these resistances is non-existent.

Feminists are also working within their own communities, organising safe spaces for survivors of domestic violence, advocating for legal reforms, pushing back against micro and macro-level attacks on bodily autonomy, and building solidarity networks with other marginalised communities. They are demanding justice for missing persons and standing up to the growing threat of censorship and surveillance, both digital and physical.

Twenty-four hours, 365 days a year.

And the work of these women and gender minorities doesn’t end here. They are faced with the mammoth task of making their efforts sustainable enough to keep the movement going in the long run — which brings us to how they are evolving with time to shape long-term, structural change.

This year, the movement is shifting shape. Instead of a single march on March 8, Aurat March organisers in different cities planned mobilizations on various dates: Lahore on February 12, Multan on February 23, Islamabad on March 8, and Karachi and Mirpurkhas on May 11.

Alongside these, initiatives like Behnon ki Baithak (being organised by the Women Democratic Front and Aurat Azadi March) continue to create spaces for feminist organising and solidarity.

Rest assured, the movement isn’t disappearing — it’s adapting, as it always has.

Let’s get real

Instead of asking, “Where are the feminists?”, the real question should be: where is everyone else?

Where is the criminal justice system when victim-survivors of rape are forced to waste years — sometimes, their whole lives — seeking justice?

Where are the policymakers when women demand protections against domestic violence?

Where are the ‘nice’ men when their friends catcall women, make sexist jokes, or brag about getting a “doosri biwi” (second wife)?

Where are you when a woman in your life is belittled, dismissed, or controlled?

The truth is, feminists have never stopped fighting. Maybe it’s time the rest of you started.