Dangerous accusations

It's not like women don't face danger almost daily in a land where they are for the most part treated as either men's 'honour' or a liability or repositories of sin. For the past few years, though, Pakistan's women – most of them young – have said it's time to change this. And so they have marched every March 8 on International Women's Day. Their marches have of course – inevitably – elicited the most vile reactions. And yet the women have persevered, refining their marches, ensuring inclusivity, ensuring that the marches go beyond sloganeering and focus on issues that affect us all.

Each year, the Aurat March is held and each year its organisers and participants have faced threats and slurs. However, this time things have gone far beyond the usual drivel – with the organisers and marchers facing very real danger. After not being able to find much else to focus on, right-wing elements set out to distort some of the Aurat March slogans and led an organised attack on the march, even going so far as to allege blasphemy. Some groups also attempted to associate the flag of the Women's Democratic Front, one of the organisations working at the grassroots level and taking part in the march, with the flag of France – and linking that to an 'agenda' against Muslims. The women's organisation has pointed out that the colours of the tricolour flag being displayed on social media are different to those of the French flag and there is no connection between it and Paris.

The whole matter is entirely ridiculous and as members of the clergy have said previously as well that those guilty of deliberately attempting to bring others to harm by making false claims of blasphemy need to be investigated so that they can be brought to book under the law. Lost in the hate and the false and malicious propaganda against women who just took one day from their lives to raise a voice against the various injustices they see around themselves is the fact that too many people willingly and openly added to the campaign against them. What is even more unfortunate is the way much of the media gleefully took part in the dangerous campaign. The fact that people are willing to allow real harm to come to Aurat March organisers is a very disturbing reminder of the lengths to which they can go just to malign something they seem to be afraid of: emancipated women. Women already face sexual violence, domestic violence, discrimination, and there is always the real fear of rape 24/7. Adding to that by purposefully inciting the religious right to threaten women with violence is not just irresponsible but criminal; if someone is harmed, who all will have blood on their hands? It would do everyone well to remember that the Aurat March is intended to draw attention to the plight of women from all walks of life in the country, including domestic workers, peasants, labourers, and other women who suffer the worst oppression in our patriarchal society. It is these matters that need to be highlighted by the media, which too has played a very lethal role in defaming the march.