Violence against women and casual misogyny is deeply rooted in our society. As women started to gradually reclaim public spaces and stood up for their rights, the patriarchy was perturbed and has decided to strike back. This time, Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri has begun to concoct controversy around the day.
Noorul Haq Qadri has written a letter to the prime minister demanding that the Aurat March on International Women Day, March 8, be banned, and that instead a march in favour of the hijab – the ‘Hijab March’ – be held in solidarity with the women of India.
While society has expressed solidarity with the beleaguered women of India and upholds the right of all women everywhere in the world to choose what to wear or not wear, there is no logic in banning Aurat March.
Interestingly, the minister in his letter acknowledges the importance of International Women’s Day in raising awareness of women’s rights, but then proceeds to decry as un-Islamic the banners and slogans that often feature at the Aurat March. It is shocking that a government minister should come out against the Aurat March in this fashion and condemn it without any proof to back his claims.
Here there are laws aplenty to protect women, from sexual harassment, domestic violence etc, but regressive social mores and an apathetic legal system remain major obstacles to implementing them. According to the latest Gender Parity Index, at the current rate it will take 136 years to close the gender gap in Pakistan.
The Religious Minister’s attempt to taint these causes as un-Islamic is an affront. It is also a reminder of the ugly attacks on Aurat March in previous years, where a group of men pelted female protestors with stones, and later circulated photoshopped offensive posters online to defame the March.
Meanwhile, the president of JUI-F’s Islamabad chapter openly threatened physical violence to disrupt the march. Clearly, misogynistic elements such as these will stop at nothing. Why is there so much fear of intersectional women’s solidarity? The government is responsible for the protection of all those engaging in their democratic right to protest on March 8.
