As the Aurat March enters its third year, the organisers and marchers are operating under a magnifying glass where all decisions are fodder for dinner table discussions and primetime television ratings. Despite the substantial barriers to mobility and access to resources women face, feminist organisers are held to an impossible standard where there is often no room for error. Within this political milieu, the Aurat March builds on the work of previous feminist organisers to create a new feminist politics grounded in grassroots campaigning, public education campaigns, art and innovative social media mobilisation.

The Aurat Marches across the country are organised by collectives of women, trans activists and gender non-binary individuals who come together to celebrate the International Women’s Day on March 8. The Aurat March Lahore adheres to three core principles: no funding or affiliation with any NGO, for-profit organisation or political party – the march is completely funded through individual donations and possible only because of the volunteer work of its members. The collective operates on a non-hierarchal basis and is leaderless. The structure of the Aurat March is in direct conversation with traditional modes of organising in the past and the exclusions that inhere, and a direct response to the criticism of the NGO-isation of the feminist movement. Furthermore, the March also rejects the trappings of neoliberal feminism where popular feminism is used to sell T-shirts and the like. The Aurat March imagines a new type of politics, free from the trappings of male-dominated political party structures where feminist organising can create spaces of empathy, hope and resistance.

This new space for organising is not without its challenges and the Aurat March Lahore has been working for the last year to build consciousness among women regarding some of the core issues that inhere in the patriarchal systems they seek to dismantle. In the last year, Aurat March conducted study circles in public spaces on subjects such as economic oppression to different forms of violence faced by women. The purpose of this exercise has been to build awareness and additionally develop an understanding of issues such as the impact of inflation from a feminist perspective. Given that feminist positions are grounded in both theory and lived experiences of women, these study circles have been an attempt to ground theoretical understandings into our everyday lives.

Drafting the manifesto for the Aurat March isn’t merely a listing of all the issues faced by women and gender minorities in this country; in fact it is an exercise in listening to communities, their feedback regarding the last March and reflecting their hopes and aspirations in the document. The manifesto is both a call to action urging the government, police, judiciary, economic system and society to listen to the demands, and an imagining of a different kind of society that exists without oppressive structures which impact women and gender minorities.

Nuanced discourse is often not possible within a placard, reducing the entire discussion to a few words.

Given that Aurat Marches' coalesce around one event during the year that is hyper-visible, often the political expression of the March can become limited and tends to invisibilise the long-term labour that goes into it. Nevertheless, the limitations of visibility politics can be seen in the reaction that the Aurat March receives, where the entire discourse of the march is centred on a few placards. Nuanced discourse is often not possible within a placard, reducing the entire basis for discussion to a few words which are then dissected for an entire year.

This mode of politics can be extremely draining, leaving very little time for organising and building the movement. Thus the mobilisation for the Aurat March taps into existing spaces of organising rather than creating new ones. The mobilising team for the Aurat March Lahore has visited mohallas, schools and colleges, collectives of women, associations, unions and women’s rights organisations to speak to women and invite them to the march. This process requires not just persuading but also listening and absorbing feedback. This year several women were familiar with the politics of the march from last year, and some of the misinformation about the march presented itself as a barrier in getting women to join. Another challenge is that the ability of women to organise politically is stymied by issues such as lack of mobility, familial resistance and the double-shift most women are burdened with. For many women attending the march on a Sunday was impossible as it is the day male members of the family are usually home, limiting their ability to leave the house.

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Organising in 2020 is incomplete without social media mobilisation. Conversations around the Aurat March in many ways are centred on social media discourse, with the electronic and print media taking their cue from the content that appears online. This year, Aurat Marches across the country have been working hard to put out educational material online through explanatory videos, infographics. The Aurat March Karachi has even developed an A-Z Feminism campaign breaking down feminist concepts into short digestible pieces of information. There is a lot of hate speech directed at the March and its participants online. At the same time, there is also organic support coming from women who put in emotional labour to participate in online campaigns such as #WhyIMarch.

Canvassing in public places across the city is another way to get the word out there. Volunteers are often sceptical if a five-minute conversation with a stranger will convince someone to turn up at the march. However, it creates opportunities to talk about gender justice and feminism and is part of larger efforts to change attitudes in society.

These different modes of moblisation will bring women from various classes, life experiences and ideologies together on March 8. They may not agree on everything but for one day they will be united against the patriarchal order. Many women have said that they will march for women who cannot march. Some will march anonymously, hoping the patriarchs around them don’t find pictures of their participation. Some will march to celebrate, others will march in rage.