The Aurat March will be held on May 10 in Karachi
This year’s Aurat March will be held on May 10 in Karachi. The organisers made the announcement on Sunday, International Women’s Day, with a fiery poster bearing the words “be glad we’re asking for justice, not revenge”.
“This Mother’s Day, we invite you to come out against the system that proudly claims it gives women ‘special treatment’, while quietly running on their unpaid, unacknowledged labour in homes. This system romanticises the roles women play as mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, while refusing to recognise them as humans, workers, citizens and decision-makers,” read the caption of the post.
“It claims women need protection, but doesn’t mention whom they need protection from. When it preaches ‘protection’ to us, all we see is marital rape, domestic violence, surveillance, forced conversions, forced deportations, enforced disappearances, and the many other implicit and explicit forms of violence that the patriarchy revolves around. So here’s a message for the ‘mehloun ke rajas (princes of the palaces)’ and for the system they protect: Mehloun ke rajay, apnay mehloun mein hi baitho (princes, stay in your palaces); it’s time the raani betis (queen daughters) take over the streets to bring about change!”
The organisers invited people to join them to march for freedom from “gender-based violence, from the state fascism packaged within PECA (and beyond), and for our Haq e Mehnat (hard-earned rights)”. “Because women are not a free child-bearing programme for the nation. Not free house cleaners, not free caregivers, not free to physically hurt, emotionally manipulate, sexually violate, or financially exploit.”
We are living, breathing organisms that hold society and the economy together, and we won’t stop marching until these systems become accountable to us, read the caption.
“This year we take to the streets to say loudly and clearly: shukar karo insaaf maang rahi hain, badla nahi (be glad we’re asking for justice, not revenge).”
This is the second year the Aurat March Karachi is being held on Mother’s Day instead of Women’s Day. At a press conference announcing the move last year, organisers said the date was changed because many women have added responsibilities during Ramazan.
This is also the first time the march is being held at Seaview. Since its inception eight years ago, it has been held either at Frere Hall or Bagh-e-Jinnah.
The march in Islamabad this year was marred by police action as several participants were arrested ahead of the rally. The Women’s Police Station released a list of 19 detained activists, including Dr Farzana Bari, two of her daughters, and human rights defender Tahira Abdullah, along with other Aurat March organisers and participants, police sources confirmed.
