Who Is Afraid of Pakistan's Aurat March?

The accusations against women's rights activists for hatching subversive agendas against Islam and the conspiracy that they want to turn Pakistan into a "free sex zone" (Dawn 2006) became an integral part of the national narrative since the 1980s. In some cases, these have even result...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economic and political weekly 2020-02
Main Author: Zia, Afiya Shehrbano
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activists
Dictators
Exegesis & hermeneutics
Faith
Feminism
Feminists
Human rights
Islamization
Jahangir, Asma
Khan, Imran
Lobbying
Morality
Muslims
Neoliberalism
Patriarchy
Political activism
Religion
Secularism
Social norms
Women
Women's studies
Womens rights movements
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Summary:The accusations against women's rights activists for hatching subversive agendas against Islam and the conspiracy that they want to turn Pakistan into a "free sex zone" (Dawn 2006) became an integral part of the national narrative since the 1980s. In some cases, these have even resulted in the murders of "NGO women" (Tirbune 2013) lawyers who take up cases for women's and minorities' rights (especially, blasphemy cases) (Buncombe and Aziz 2014), and those who speak for expanding spaces and freedoms and liberalising gender social relations (Shamsie 2015). In the absence of any decent academic base, the same activists found themselves stretched in doing research, writing, advocacy work, raising funds, lobbying with military and civilian governments, fighting cases in courts, and sometimes, even joining the state, in order to realise any rights at all. The lack of any emergent critical mass of activists, or the revival of left politics in the democratic interregnum that followed (1988-99), was attributed to an apolitical generation fed on Zia's censored media and the collapse of education and the dismal state of social sciences in Pakistan (Zaidi 2002).
ISSN:0012-9976