Aurat March calls for putting end to gender-based violence

The attendance of women like Dilshad, a Muslim, and George Mariam, her Christian neighbour, from Karachi’s Younus Goth was among the best things that came out of the Aurat March this year.

The two neighbours of different faiths belonging to an impoverished area had come to the march for the empowerment of women. Mariam had also brought her grandchildren. She said that one of her granddaughters stopped attending school at the age of 15 because her school was far from her home. This was the exact reason, she said, she wanted to be part of the march.

She demanded that the government take measures that made it easier for the girls like her granddaughter to go to school. The Aurat March was held at the Frere Hall on Friday afternoon. A mock graveyard was also set up there in memory of women and members of the transgender community who had lost their lives in violent incidents.

One such grave was of a 30-year-old woman who lost her life at the hands of in-laws for not bringing the dowry they had expected. Another grave was of a 21-year-old transgender person who committed suicide due to abuse from her family.

One more grave was of a two-day-old infant girl who lost her life for being just a girl. One of the Aurat March’s organisers told The News that their purpose of making the mock graveyard was to bring to light the killings of women and transgender people who lost their lives due to abuse in society.

The organiser said that generally society overlooked such killings and it was very necessary to keep reminding the people that such oppression happened in the country. There was also an Aurat Ehtejaji Mela (women’s protest festival) in the march.

The organisers demanded a cut in both military and civilian expenditures, with cuts in non-combative expenditures and extraneous expenditures of civilian governments as first steps.

They demanded that this money be immediately routed to the people for social security (monthly stipends), maternal care benefits, child care benefits, etc. They demanded a complete separation of the armed forces and the civilian state, along with the abolishment of military courts.

They demanded that all workers, whether working in factories, at farms or homesteads, as sanitation workers, or in homes as domestic workers, be given a living wage based on access to safe housing, quality education and affordable healthcare for themselves and their families.

They demanded immediate enforcement of minimum wage across all sectors, and for all the actors who refuse this to be fined under the law. They demanded that the Home-Based Workers Act, 2018, be implemented immediately, and that the Sindh government make immediate arrangements to have workers registered and set up a social security fund and benefits as stated in the law.

They demanded an end to extrajudicial killings in Balochistan. They demanded an end to censorship, surveillance, enforced disappearances and murders of all activists, journalists and political workers, including enforced disappearances in Sindh, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.

They said the government must take action against the escalating hate campaign online, and the extreme violence, including extreme mob violence, which is used to intimidate and murder the marginalised people.

They urged the state to pay attention to minority rights. “Our first demand is to call an end to abduction, harassment, forced marriages, sexual grooming, rape and forced conversions of girls and women from religious minorities, and demand the passing of the anti-forced conversion law.

“Our second demand is to seek immediate accountability of the perpetrators of the Jaranwala mob attacks, and urge the Supreme Court to hear the petition filed by activists and Christian community leaders.”