Aurat March participants vow to topple patriarchy

Demands for women’s rights, inclusivity and protection highlighted

LAHORE:

In celebration of International Women’s Day, people from different walks of life participated in Aurat March at the Lahore Press Club.

Carrying placards and posters inscribed with demands for women's rights, inclusivity and protection, hundreds of women gathered outside the press club to begin marching through Lahore's famous Mall Road.

While emotive theatrics have been a part of the Aurat March for the last few years, this year there was an experiential art exhibit aimed at highlighting the intensity and frequency of street harassment faced by women in the city. The art set-up was a booth one could walk through and experience the streets of the city in a woman’s shoes and understand how unsafe a woman feels walking through Lahore’s streets.

A protester in her early twenties held a placard with the statement “Mask upar, nazray neechay” (Keep your masks up and lower your gaze). Another protester, Aeysha, held a poster that stated, “Yay sarkay hamari bhi hain!” (These streets belong to us too!).

Explaining her poster, Aeysha told The Express Tribune that she was marching for the women who could not march. "I march for all those women who can’t come out today, or any day for that matter, because of how unsafe our streets have become. I have a right to roam these streets without feeling threatened as much as any man in this country does. The fact that harassment has become a normal occurrence in our country is highly concerning for me.”

The entrance also showcased another exhibit aimed at unethical journalism, which has previously proved to be dangerous for women who protest for their rights. The exhibit consisted of cardboard cut-outs of various journalists who had previously misreported incidents and images of the march for clickbait purposes. The cut-outs held banners quoting the journalists they represented and a QR code to access record of the misinformation they had spread.

From the Shimla Pahari, the march proceeded through the Empress and Egerton Roads before continuing to Faletti’s Hotel on Mall Road. Near the hotel, several Khawaja Sirah, transgender and Moorat persons carried around a banner with the names of the unreported murders in their community.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2022.