Activists gear up for sit-in at Frere Hall

Present 15-point agenda, demanding end to honour killings, improved legal recourse, protection

KARACHI:

Announcing a sit in at Frere Hall on Monday, when the Aurat March will coincide with the International Women's Day, the members of the march's organising committee warned on Friday of extending the protest if the government failed to fulfill their demands within a stipulated time frame.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, they called for the effective implementation of laws to provide protection to women.

Cultural and social activist Sheema Kermani demanded an end to karo kari – honour killing, urging the government to take notice of tortures inflicted on women.

"Forced conversions should be stopped and women and transgender persons should be deployed in police stations," she added, echoing the demands listed in the Aurat March's 15-point agenda for this year.

Besides, she called for desks to facilitate women and transgender persons to be established at police stations and courts and the number of female medico-legal officers should be increased.

"This year, the theme [of Aurat March] centres on changing the patriarchal system," she said. "We do not stand with men who deprive women of their rights."

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Kermani added, "We are in our fourth year and as inclusive as before. To remind people again, Aurat March represents women from all spheres of lives, from all classes [and] backgrounds, from all religions and from all ethnicities."

Muneeza Ahmed, another member of the organizing committee, said, ""This time we are not marching, but staging a sit-in to raise our demands…that begin with providing basic human rights to all those who are marginalised in Pakistan."

Citing the Aurat March manifesto for 2021, the speakers said the march was aimed at uniting women, trans persons and non-binary people for the cause of gender justice and bringing about collective social change based on the principles of inclusion, dignity, freedom and equality.

Demands

The 15-point agenda of Aurat March calls for establishing gender-based violence reporting cells in police stations and that they be led by "gendersensitised women and khwaja sira police officers with specialised training."

The organisers have further called for setting up help desks at police stations and courts for women, transgender persons and non-binary people to report cases of violence and harassment.

Moreover, a demand has been made for establishing shelter houses for women, transgender persons and nonbinary people, as well as child protection centres.

Besides, the organisers have urged the Sindh government to enact the bill proposed against forced conversions into a law and enforce the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010.

A call has also been made to end honour killing. The organisers have moved the federal government to put an end to extrajudicial killings and the demolition of structures on account of anti-encroachment drives.