KARACHI: The Karachi chapter of the Women Democratic Front (WDF) commemorated Pakistan Women’s Resistance Day on Saturday at the Karachi Press Club. The event, entitled ‘Women’s revolution against patriarchal violence’, was held to raise consciousness of the struggles of Pakistani women across class, religion, caste and ethnicity.

WDF is a progressive women’s movement that focuses on mobilising working-class women and propagating a socialist-feminist discourse in Pakistani society.

The event began with a welcome note by Sadaf Thallo, federal member of WDF, followed by workers’ anthem, Internationale. This was followed by a panel discussion on understanding patriarchal violence through a socialist-feminist lens, moderated by educationist Hina Saleem Mesiya.

Afiya S. Zia, feminist academic and a member of the Women’s Action Forum, shed light on the statist nature of violence, and the colonial-era laws and rise of nationalism that promotes a culture of impunity for violence against women.

Farwa Thallo, a lecturer at Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, spoke of the normalisation of violence against women and how this was linked to women being excluded and discouraged from engaging in public and political processes. She emphasised the need for continued feminist struggle. Lawyer and WDF-Karachi member Abira Ashfaq spoke about the structures of oppression that women face and the roles that capitalism, imperialism and state neglect play in the economic oppression of women and devaluing of their labour.

When asked by the audience about the government’s attitude towards issues affecting marginalised women, the panellists said that though the provincial government has enacted progressive legislation such as the recently passed Sindh Women Agriculture Workers Bill and the Sindh Home-Based Workers Act, 2018, in many cases women are not consulted during the drafting phase of laws, and that mechanisms to ensure their implementation such as budget allocation are lacking.

Pastor Ghazala Shafique asked: “Why is it that in our society we can’t seem to decide what the definition of a ‘woman’ is? When it’s convenient for us we call a woman who is 19-20 years old a child who cannot make her own choices, but in the case of child marriages and forced conversions we consider them adults.”

Ms Ashfaq responded that if a girl below the age of consent cannot be legally married, the state must treat her alleged conversion as forced.

After the panel discussion and Q&A, members of WDF-Karachi held a theatrical performance entitled Boli, which spoke of the oppression of women and the burden they are forced to carry in our society, concluding with a message of standing up against perpetrators of patriarchal violence. Aabida Ali, information secretary of WDF, and other members sang revolutionary songs to celebrate the political struggle of Pakistani women.

Led by Laila Raza, WDF-Karachi president, the event concluded with the gathering — a number of political organisers, students and activists, including veterans Sheema Kermani, Nuzhat Shirin and MPA Kalpana Devi — chanting ‘Aayi aiyi! Aurat aayi!’

After the event, National Commission of Human Rights member Anis Haroon commented that such gatherings are important to acknowledge the existence of the feminist movement in Pakistan. “We must raise awareness of how far women have come, as well as how far we have yet to go to secure our rights as equal citizens. Women have managed to chart a movement that connects across all vulnerable sections of society and links the feminist cause to a range of issues, including environmental, economic and social justice. Feminism is not against men but against a system of oppression that affects the whole of society.”

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2020