Women In Pakistan

 

Thousands of women rallied across Pakistan on International Women’s Day this year and demanded an end to violence against women and gender minorities. In the days since, Pakistan’s Taliban movement has escalated the threats facing the women who marched. Opponents of women’s rights doctored a video of the rally to suggest that the women had committed blasphemy—an accusation that has been frequently weaponized against minorities in Pakistan and has resulted in vigilantes killing those who are targeted.

To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, Pakistani women held what they call the Aurat (Women)’s March—an annual series of rallies that began in Karachi in 2018. This year’s Aurat March—held in at least seven cities nationwide—included demands for safety from endemic violence, accessible health care in a nation where nearly half of women are malnourished, and the basic economic justice of safe working environments and equal opportunities for women. In Pakistan, as in other countries where women already were most vulnerable, the COVID pandemic has exacerbated their crises, including gender-based violence. Recent violence in Pakistan lent particular poignancy to last week’s women’s rights rallies. In September, when a mother ran out of gas while driving her two young children on a highway, two men raped her—and one of Pakistan’s most powerful police officers blamed her for inviting the crime by having driven at night. A storm of protest erupted, focusing national attention on gender-based violence, including a spate of attacks against transgender women.

The highway attack was the latest in atrocities over decades to re-ignite a national discourse on gender-based violence that remains largely reactive in nature. The government passed a new anti-rape ordinance in December, promising harsher punishments like chemical castration for perpetrators and speedier trial of rape cases through special courts. Similarly, the spike in violent attacks on women during COVID has produced demands for measures like national helplines, shelters, legal aid and psycho-social support for victims. As vital as these measures can be, the nation’s response still fails to move to prevention by addressing the causes of violence against women.