Aurat March is back again to threaten the citadel of patriarchy. Yesterday, thousands of women in Pakistan took to the street to the fury of chauvinistic guardians of our society and culture. Unmoved by threats from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Lal Masjid affiliates and “vulgarity” labels by the like of Khalilur Rehman Qamar, the women’s rights movement continued with even greater fervour this year. Demanding space for marginalised voices and greater budget allocation for women’s health, these champions of equality bore the flag against patriarchy. And why wouldn’t they? Pakistan still ranks 151 out of 153 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index Report 2020. The only countries lagging behind are Iraq and Yemen. If male privilege rampant in our society cannot spare a thought or two over a thousand women killed in the name of “honour” every year, they have no moral right to attack the women who dare say “no more.” The world around us might have come a long way from the days of savagery when women were bartered like chattel or trapped under glass ceilings. However, Pakistani women are still stuck in murky waters, where the female literacy rate is far lower than that of males. People claim the picture is far rosier than Gen Zia’s misogynistic tenure when rape victims who dared brave the courts were jailed for adultery. But innumerable instances of forced marriage and domestic violence illustrates this struggle to gain equal footing is just as relevant today as it was then. With anti-women practices on the rise left, right and centre, life is anything but easy for Pakistani women. It is simply unfortunate that regressive elements choose to beat the drum about irrelevant details like the so-called contentious language of placards and slogans. Had they rallied behind the protestors to do something tangible about the very real issues these marches highlight, circumstances might have been a little promising. But in this much-celebrated land of the pure, this unconsecrated group is still in a dire need to be purified. Purified of all patriarchal chains that hold them tight in the confines of “chadar” and “char diwari.” Purified of the chauvinistic resistance that obstructs every female from making a stride towards top positions. Purified: through and through! For every Fatima Jinnah, we have a thousand girls dreaming of sitting in a classroom one day (over 12 million Pakistan’s female students are out of school.) The leading light of every Benazir Bhutto is dampened when we look at barriers–dirty nature of politics, negative campaigning, loss of privacy–that allow only five per cent of women to actively pursue politics (according to a 2016 survey published in the International Political Science Review). That women are the key to the economic and social development of any country is no news. But despite repeating this mantra over and over again, no one is ready to give them space to grow. Parliaments and courts of law would come later. First, we need to get rid of the patriarchy germs deeply embedded within all of our minds. *