ISLAMABAD: The environment at the Aurat Azadi March grew tense on Sunday after participants of the march and counter protesters from the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamia Hafsa and other religious groups exchanged heated arguments and threw rocks at each other.

A large group of people gathered outside the National Press Club for the third Aurat Azadi March, which is held of International Women’s Day on March 8 every year, on the call of the Women’s Democratic Front (WDF).

This year the march also invited criticism and counter protesters. The district administration partitioned the road outside the press club, dividing the march itself from its opponents.

Although the counter protesters had agreed to leave the venue by 3pm, they did not fulfill their promise to the district administration, which has now decided to register a case against them for this reason.

The Aurat Azadi March began at 3pm for this reason.

Participants and counter protesters exchanged heated arguments, threw rocks outside press club

But around 5pm, opponents of the march broke through the divider and threw rocks at the participants, some of whom then threw rocks at them as well.

Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqat told Dawn that the district administration had reached an understanding with the counter protesters that they would leave by 3pm.

“At 5pm we decided to use force to push them back and while they were leaving, some of the participants threw some things on the other side of the partition. It happened for some minutes and everything was handled peacefully. We have decided to register a case against the march’s opponents as they tried to provoke the situation,” he said.

A statement issued by JUI-F media coordinator Mufti Shafiur Rehman claimed that the situation at the march grew tense because “women from different NGOs threw batons at participants of the Jamiat Ahle Sunnat gathering”.

He claimed they also chanted slogans of “terrorists and then threw rocks, injuring 15 women of which three had to be taken to hospital”.

He said: “It became very difficult for the organisers to control participants as they were provoked.”

Awami Workers Party Punjab President Ammar Rashid, however, called the allegation baseless.

“The fact is that only the opponents threw stones at us, and we also have video evidence,” he said.

After the incident, more people reached the venue outside the press club to participate in the march, which also included speeches, songs and performances.

WDF President Ismat Shahjahan said: “We have an overgrown patriarchy, which is extremist, fanatic and violent. Patriarchal and sexual barbarism has spread like an epidemic, as a result of which women and little children are raped and killed by their own family members. We are at a crossroads of history, where we have to make a choice between socialist-feminist revolution or patriarchal and sexual barbarism.”

Rights activist Tahira Abdullah emphasised the need to strengthen feminist organisations to fight patriarchal violence and take back shrinking space for women and other marginalised groups.

“As an educator I saw how unequal distribution of domestic labour, and structural and attitudinal biases against female professionals, stopped many talented women from being able to advance in their careers,” political worker and former professor Rashida Saleemi said at the march.

Political worker Nasreen Chaudhry spoke about the housing crisis in the capital and its impact on working class women and their families.

Transgender rights activist Nayab Ali recited poetry to raise awareness about the challenges facing the transgender community, while Muneeba Rehman spoke about issues facing students.

Anam Rathor, an Aurat Azadi March organiser, read out their charter of demands. They included an end to all forms of violence from killings to enforced marriages, sexual violence to acid attacks and harassment to moral policing, an end to women’s domestic confinement and servitude and in support of the protection of democratic and civil liberties.

JI women’s march

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) held its own women’s march at D-Chowk on Sunday, where JI Emir Senator Sirajul Haq announced that his party would not give a ticket to any candidate who does not give a share of inheritance to his daughters or sisters.

“I will raise the issues of women in the Senate,” he said, adding: “While he was in opposition Prime Minister Imran Khan used to speak about Afia Siddiqui, but now he is not willing to hear about her. If the Taliban can get 5,000 of their prisoners released, why can’t we do so?”

Senator Haq also urged the government to set up women’s universities across the country.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2020