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Proud to be a woman

By Erum Noor Muzaffar
Tue, 03, 19

In our society majority of women face discrimination and bias treatment. They don’t get equal job opportunities....

opinion

In our society majority of women face discrimination and bias treatment. They don’t get equal job opportunities, they don’t get fair share in property, they are denied the right to marry out of their own choice. They suffer due to malnutrition. Boys are always preferred over girls. Women are the victims of domestic violence and they are generally viewed as inferior or weaker sex. The list is long and we have to struggle a lot in order to attain equal rights for us (women).

Each year, on 8th March, International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated all over the world. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. IWD was first time observed in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland in March 1911. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. Since then the world has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation. However, according to statistics, women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men. And this disparity is more conspicuous in our society than the developed ones.

So, keeping the spirit of IWD in mind, the second edition of ‘Aurat March’ was held in different cities of Pakistan on 8th March. The march was organised under the banner of ‘Hum Aurtein’; a collective of feminist women, transgender individuals and sexual minorities who stand against patriarchal structures. This feminist movement started last year in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad with a clear vision to coincide with the women’s marches all over the world. It is interesting to note that ‘Hum Aurtein’ takes its name from Kishwar Naheed’s revolutionary poem ‘Hum Gunagar Aurtein’. What is unique about the movement is its lack of affiliation with any political party or any organisation.

This year ‘Aurat March’ was bigger and better as it was held not only in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad but also in Hyderabad, Quetta, Peshawar and Mardan. Women from all spheres of the society demanded for economic justice, reproductive justice, and environmental justice. According to Sheema Kermani, a feminist activist and one of the leading prominent figures behind ‘Hum Aurtain’, “Every year, on International Women’s Day, we unite women and individuals from gender non-binary groups to celebrate and strive for the spirit of inclusion, dignity, and respect. Our march isn’t funded by any political party, corporation or NGO. We collect money from other citizens to bring the march together.” Kudos to the organisers for successfully arranging peaceful rallies and for bringing women on one platform from all over the country.

Though Aurat March was held in different cities, this year the most prominent march remained the one held in Karachi owing to some of its controversial posters/slogans. As women and men walked for their rights, (men in solidarity with women), a large majority of them carried posters, explored the issues that were close to their heart. It was heartening to see creative and positive posters on gender equality and human rights issues.

However, what did not go well with the theme of IWD were the few controversial slogans which were later subject of discussion over social media. It was great to see liberated women carrying slogans demanding their own rights metaphorically; but in doing that they got a little overboard as some slogans were not in good taste and were of little significance as compared to the gigantic importance of Women’s Day - distracting one from real issues. Women who participated in ‘Aurat March’ were mostly from educated, enlightened families. They were already blessed ones and were confident enough to raise their chosen and unapologetic slogans so that their voice could be heard. It was commendable on their part to come out of their comfort zones and actively participated in ‘Aurat March’ and showed empathy for the underprivileged ones. However, some of the participants got over excited and carried posters which raised a lot of eyebrows due to their indecent language.

Well, everyone has a right to speak their mind but there are ways of saying or doing things. It was disappointing to see outrageous slogans which 90 percent of our population does not relate to. ‘Tu karay tou stud, mein karun tou slut’, ‘mein awara, mein badchalan’ were the few bold slogans which many a girl cannot relate to. It’s good to be sexually liberated but in our conservative set-up where girls are not allowed to marry out of their own choice, talking about sexual freedom seems like a farfetched idea. Moreover, slogans like ‘mujhay kia maloom tumhara moza kahan hai?’ and ‘apna khana khud garam karo’ were in total contradiction to our traditional family set-up. In elite class, almost every woman has a cook or maid who looks after the house so such slogans are irrelevant for them. In a broad perspective, most wives don’t mind taking care of their husbands so they don’t see this as a problem. Hence, such slogans held by the elite class lose their validity when implemented on average households.

Similarly, it’s okay for a modern girl to say ‘mein roti nahi pakaon gi’ and ‘apnay rishtaydaar khud sumbhalo’, but a girl from a lower middle class cannot think of doing so. Actually our society has broadly been divided into ‘haves’ and ‘haves-not’. The issues of deprived class are different from the privileged one. For instance, divorce is still a big issue in middle-class families, whereas being single or divorcee is no big deal in upper class. In the middle class, payment of utility bills and paying school fee are issues which haunt parents as oppose to women from upper class who get upset if their children don’t get admission in elite schools. According to me, it’s more of a class difference than gender discrimination. Women from privileged class more or less enjoy the same perks as men whereas women from working class have to face myriads of problems including compliance to their men. Despite working hard, our labour women do not get the kind of respect that they deserve from men.

Another point to ponder over is that different news regarding Aurat March has been making rounds on the internet soon after the march. The sad part was that people started ridiculing Aurat March and media was equally responsible in doing that. Instead of showing noteworthy posters, the media chose to show posters which they thought were ‘entertaining’ and giving everyone a chance to mock women easily. It was saddening to see that people (especially men) were sharing those posters for wrong reasons (picking up gender war and writing replies to satisfy male ego) which was totally uncalled for. With this, we just not forgot the purpose of this march, but also it belittled the oppression faced by women around the globe in different intensities.

We are going through challenging times, there are so many genuine issues to be taken care of, there are laws to be made - protecting women’s rights and there is lot of work to be done for the implementation of the laws favouring women. Movements like ‘Hum Aurtain’ are a welcome addition in the on-going feminist movements fighting for women’s rights all over the country. However, the organisers should take into account sentiments of hundreds and thousands of women before giving a go ahead to flimsy posters which may become an issue of controversy - demeaning the very purpose of the movement!

— Erum Noor Muzaffar is the editor of You! magazine, she can be contacted at iram29@hotmail.com