Daily Times

The Aurat March tradition will be six years old this year on International women’s day. Aurat March’s predominantly negative perception is mainly owed to provocative and explicit slogans and placards. Interestingly many women oppose the Aurat March. A scene from an American movie based on a true story, Not Without My Daughter, showed the wife -an American woman- being battered by her Muslim Iranian husband in public in Iran. Not a single person intervened to save her. She managed to escape and ran to fetch her daughter from school. However, she is blocked from meeting her daughter by an older woman dressed in a black burqa, who sternly keeps repeating the phrase, “Not without your husband’s permission.”

It does not matter that the battered wife’s life is at risk. The burqa-clad woman’s cold and stern words were devoid of humanity. This is internalized misogyny where women learn to hate their own gender for its weak status and stand to hate and oppress other women.

I saw this replayed on Youtube on a show by a Pakistani tele-evangelist. A lady guest in the show was completely dressed in black and even her eyes were only partially visible.

This Pakistani older lady was identical in her appearance and conduct to that Iranian lady portrayed in the film. She engaged in character assassination of Aurat March participants and glorified men. She stressed that only a well-behaved woman is treated well by her father, brother and husband.

The demand for body autonomy is a fair demand by women of ownership over their own bodies, to which they will be held accountable before Allah.

Her tirade won over the male Islamic social media preacher. The host then gloated over the pitiable status of women assigned by Islam.

This dress code is termed Sharai Purdah by the Islamic clergy. Such attire was never seen in the times of the Prophet Muhmmad (PBUH). Women draped Chadars in the times of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), including his own wives and daughters, as is clearly mentioned in authentic hadith. The faces of women were visible during the times of the prophet as is established from multiple sahih or authentic hadith. Black garments were not worn by women in those days.

There is no clergy in Islam but religious innovations or bidat by men have created a clergy who invented the sharai purdah, where a woman is covered in black from head to toe, with even her eyes only partially visible. Just as women who will be dressed but naked will enter hellfire, those who preach the bidat of sharai purdah will also enter hellfire.

This religious innovation or bidat was invented in a bid to deny public space and human rights to women to revert them to their jahiliya pre-islamic subhuman status. This dress code has a profound impact on women’s psyche, attitude and behaviour.

Female foeticide, female infanticide, gender bias in nutrition, girls being denied the right to education, denial and usurpation of their legal inheritance by male relatives, early marriages, forced marriages, dowry deaths by burning women alive, lack of body autonomy leading to back to back pregnancies, miscarriages due to strained health, domestic violence, as well as harassment and molestation while using public space are all very real issues that women face in Pakistan. Having no say in their own marriage, being killed in the name of honour, being ostracized and stigmatized for taking a divorce and being made to endure emotional, verbal, financial and physical abuse is an everyday reality for countless women. Public space is denied to women and even girls going to school are subjected to harassment by males leading them to drop out of school. Women who choose to work face all kinds of discrimination and harassment at their workplace and judgment from society.

All of these fall within the purview of human rights violations. They are also grave sins in Islam.

Aurat March is a demand for gender-based human rights.

Those who oppose the Aurat March, view females one-dimensionally in the domestic setting as mothers, daughters, wives and sisters. Even within the domestic setting, the half-hearted plea to protect women from domestic violence is often phrased as, “She is also someone’s daughter or sister.” This phrase reminds men to think of the hurt caused to a woman’s male relatives. It says nothing about the hurt caused to the woman herself.

Allah SWT Himself granted Legal personhood to women. Through the Quran, Allah SWT gave Muslim women the right to education, the right to own property, the right to inherit, the right to vote, the right to contract debt, the right to approach a court, the right to sign a business contract and the right to marry and divorce as per her will.

Islamic pioneer women were trailblazers. The first martyr or shaheed in Islam was a woman named Sumayyah bint Khabbat. The first schools or madrassas were set up by mother Ayesha binte Abu Bakr. The first university in the world named Qarawiyyin was set up in Morocco by Fatima al Fihri, a Fatimid princess. The Quran honours Bilquis, the Queen of Sheeba in the Quran as a righteous, just and able ruler.

This clearly establishes the role of women in society.

We have reverted to the days of pre-islamic jahiliyyah, as the Islamic clergy has created a culture where women are considered property kept at home. Religious innovations by the clergy have caused Islamic societies to become uncivilized.

A girl walking to school is a minor child owed protection under the constitution of Pakistan. A lone woman going to NADRA’s office for the issuance of a national identity card is exercising her right as a Pakistani citizen. A lone woman going to the hospital for medical assistance is a human seeking pain relief. A lone woman going to court to claim her inheritance is a citizen of the state demanding the legal right given to her by both the Divine Quran and the Pakistani constitution.

Many burqa-clad women living in traditional male-dominated households subvert Aurat March participants. Their envy compels them to wish that other women too live in utter and complete subjugation to men. By being vocal about their opposition to Aurat March they seek to appease men.

Aurat March participants demand the right to public space. When they chant the infamous slogan, Mera Jism Meri Marzi, they are not glorifying promiscuity. The demand for body autonomy is a fair demand by women of ownership over their own bodies, to which they will be held accountable before Allah SWT. This slogan – which should have been worded better – does not advocate indecent or immoral actions. It is deliberately misunderstood by men and self-loathing women seeking to appease men.

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist. She can be reached at aliya1924@gmail.com