Daily Times

Year after year, those belonging to the so-called “weaker sex” manage to ruffle the feathers of ever-so-powerful male chauvinism with just one masterstroke: Aurat March. If 2022 centred on the then federal minister Noorul Haq Qadri’s letter to the prime minister as he literally lost grasp of reality; shaking in his boots at the prospect of a group of women daring to stand in the open and demand what is rightfully theirs in the eyes of law and the eyes of God, this season, the troubles have begun to brew in a largely metropolitan, urban centre: Lahore.

Deputy Commissioner’s refusal to issue a no-objection certificate out of security fears has been making rounds on social media–even stirring up small waves across the border–as yet another attempt to appease the conservative right-wing that is ironically busy taking out banners and placards in commemoration of “Haya Day.”

While Sunday’s declaration by Punjab Interim Information Minister Amir Mir about “believ(ing) in the freedom of all individuals” affirms that thanks to an about-turn by the administration, the stumbling blocks have been removed, the situation on the ground would still be far from ideal on the day of the demonstration. In the past, defenders of the patriarchy have come down hard on some of the more daring slogans regarding women’s autonomy; putting at risk the lives of participants through their vicious disinformation campaigns. No matter where one may stand on the spectrum (and they are just as empowered by the constitution to enjoy their line of thinking), the magnificent feat of the young feminist movement in sending shockwaves so that the nation is forced to open its eyes to the plight of over 109 million cannot be denied. The implications of not realising the problem of how one gender continues to thrive at the expense of others at every step of life have tragically unfolded in the form of Gender Parity Ratings–it would take 136 years to close the gender gap in the mothership.

For now, let the digital art take over and discomforting hashtags bask in the sunlight because until and unless the harsh realities of what these women face every day of their lives are not shoved in our faces, we would refuse to acknowledge they exist. Who knows if the twenty-third year of the New Age turns out to be a charm and the state snaps out of its complicity with those who get a kick out of tearing women and their dreams apart? *