Will the Aurat March Change the status of women in our society?

Every year 8^th March is celebrated worldwide as International Women’s Day. The United Nation officially announced the observance of International Women Day in 1977. The first National Woman's Day was observed in the United States on 28 February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honor of 1908 garment workers' strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions. The basic aim of International Women Day to empower women and reduce the patriarchy in societies all around the globe.

Like the rest of the world, International Women's day was also celebrated in Pakistan. Women from different sections of civil society conducted marches and rallies in the different parts of the country under the banner of Aurat March. The key demand was economic justice for women as highlighted in the manifesto.

The Aurat March which means women’s march was held on 8^th April 2018 for the first time. Few women organized gathering in the Karachi and demanded to end the violence against the women. However, the Aurat March Landed in hot water when participants in 2019 Aurat March raised slogans that were difficult for the society to digest. Among these slogans, one was “Mera Jism, Meri Merzi”, which means my body my choice. Various sections of the society especially the conservative section severely criticized the slogan. The slogans raised during the 2019 march were even criticized by the many women who work for women’s rights in the country.

The phrase “Mera jism Meri Merzi” is criticized because it seems too westernized in its ideals and many critics see it as obscene, having sexual connotation, against the social norms and highly prized expectations of modesty in women. It is unclear that what were the real intentions of the participant who introduced this slogan. It seems that she only wanted the freedom of movement and dress choice and remains unaware of the actual meaning of My Body My Choice.  However, in its actual usage, this phrase as adopted form western society embraces its other implication. It involves legalizing the organ sale, abolishing laws against prostitution, legalizing the drugs, etc. This slogan really damaged the genuine women's movement in a conservative society and divided society.

An example of this division is the Haya march. Women in different parts of the country also conducted the Haya March. The same media who highlighted the women's participation in International women day neglected the same section of society who were also marching but with different agendas. The Haya march only came into media attention when clashed occurred among the participants of Haya March and Aurat March in Islamabad. It is extremely unfair to highlight one section while totally neglecting the other because the others were not complying with the aims and objectives of the former one. If a woman is participating.

There is consensus among the majority of people that Aurat March is an outside (western) agenda and the basic purpose of the march is to spread the vulgarity in the society and attack the family system and ideals of Islam. If there is any doubt, one can check the slogans and the views of the participant in the march. They were shouting for freedom. Freedom from what? From the social and cultural norms of the society in which their demands were only emanating from Jism to Merzi while neglecting the real plight of women that she faces in society. All the participants of the Aurat March are already free in their choices and well off but there the only purpose is to gain the attention of media and popularity. How many of such feminist have really highlight the genuine issues of women at that march? But their major focus was on Mera Jism Meri Merzi with the intention to disrupt the social and family system of the society. The irony is that such a small section wants to impose their ideology upon the whole society and there is absolutely no doubt that women at that march were not genuinely representing the marginalized community of our society.

There is no doubt that women are facing serious problems in our society. According to the World Economic Forum, Pakistan is the worst-performing country on Global Gender Index Gap Report 2019 and ranked 151 out of 153 countries. The global Gender Index Gap Measure and ranks the country on the basis of women's economic and political participation, education and health care facilities, women empowerment and their share in decision making. Pakistan's performance is not satisfactory on all these front. Instead of highlighting the real issues and announcing a roadmap to address these issues in collaboration with the rest of society, the feminist section of our country directed their hatred and criticism toward the social and religious values of our society with the aim of spreading the vulgarity and immorality in the society. The success of their Aurat March will depend on how society accepts this movement and accepts it because the same-gender came forth against the Aurat March.

It is the responsibility of all sections of our society to work for the uplift of all marginalized communities of the society including women. Women must be given proper education and healthcare facilities and all forms of gender-based violence must be abolished. They must be empowered both economically and politically so they can spend a healthy and prosperous life. Economically women can be empowered if there are given their inheritance share. They must be empowered in all spheres of lives but not at the will of any westernized agenda and at the cost of our social, cultural and religious values. If they kept on vandalizing the socio-religious values, then they will face greater opposition from among their own section because the negation of their ideology in itself will be defeat to all those who want to impose any foreign agenda.