Aurat March: Women's Rights in Pakistan

    International Women's Day falls on March 8 every year, a day often filled with Women's Marches across the globe. In Pakistan, Aurat March, Women's March, began on March 8, 2018, in Karachi. In 2019, 2020, and 2021, several other cities along with Karachi held an Aurat March. Aurat March is especially powerful in a country like Pakistan, where women are often subject to violence and other human rights abuses. 

    The Human Rights Watch states that around 1,000 women in Pakistan are killed in “honor killings” every year. It also shared that cases of domestic violence increased 200 percent from January to March of 2020, most likely a result of Covid-19 lockdowns in the country in early 2020.

    Another prominent issue that women face in Pakistan is forced marriage. Due to a combination of traditional practices and, most significantly, law enforcement’s little to no involvement, women face many difficulties in leaving the aforementioned forced marriages. Women in Pakistan are often unable to leave or end their marriages without both their husband’s and family’s consent and risk being cast out of their communities for doing so.

    In regards to marriage, child marriage is also quite common in Pakistan. The Human Rights Watch shares that 21 percent of girls in Pakistan marry before the age of 18 and 3 percent before 15.

    Unfortunately, women's efforts through events such as Aurat March face severe and dangerous backlash. For example, the Pakistan Taliban, a loose alliance of militant groups that was founded by the then-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in 2007, threatened the individuals that organized the Aurat March in 2021.

    Women in Pakistan, however, will hopefully continue to successfully stage Aurat March despite threats.

Sources

https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/once-again-pakistans-womens-march-is-targeted-with-a-vicious-smear-campaign/

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/pakistan#

https://preventforcedmarriage.org/forced-marriage-overseas-pakistan/

https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/the-pakistani-taliban-is-back/