• Rallies, seminars held on International Women’s Day to highlight key issues
• Rights activists call for abolishing all anti-women laws
• Hundreds participate in Mehnatkash Aurat Rally

KARACHI: There were a number of programmes, including rallies, press conferences and seminars held in the city in accordance with International Women’s Day on Wednesday.

The Aurat March, now in its sixth year, meanwhile was moved ahead to Sunday, March 12, as its organisers announced that they did not want women who work for daily wages to lose out on their earnings on a weekday.

One of the biggest events of the day was the Mehnatkash Aurat Rally, organised by Home Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF) with the demand to abolish all anti-women laws and fixing the minimum wage at Rs50,000 per month.

The rally was participated by hundreds of women from different parts of Sindh, including peasant women, labourers, office workers, political leaders and transgender persons all of whom chanted slogans in favour of their demands and held red flags, banners and placards with slogans such as ‘Zero tolerance for harassment at the workplace’, ‘Free women means a free society’, ‘Reverse the rise in prices of fuel, electricity and daily use items’, etc.

They were also carrying big pictures of late women leaders and social activists such as Miss Fatima Jinnah, Benazir Bhutto, Asma Jahangir, Bilquis Edhi, etc, to show that they were also with them in spirit.

HBWWF General Secretary Zahra Khan led the rally from Press Club Chowk (formerly Fawwara Chowk) to the Arts Council of Pakistan.

The rally leaders in their speeches said that the capitalist economy had made women wage slaves. Gender-based discrimination, economic and environmental degradation has hit them badly. They said that the struggle for freedom of women is basically part of the war against capitalist dominance.

Other participants of the rally included Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Union Federation; Saira Feroze of United Home-Based Workers Union; Shakila Khan and Jamila Abdul Latif of Home-Based Women Bangle Workers Union; Sajida Kausar of HBWWF; Sabaghi Bheel, president of Sindh Agricultural General Workers Union; Dr Momal Nasir; Karamat Ali, convenor National Labour Council; Aqib Hussain of Alternative Youth Group; Zainab Nasir also of Alternative Youth Group; Qazi Khizr of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan; Saeed Baloch of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum; writers Waheed Baloch and Hani Baloch; Sajjad Zaheer of Anjumam Taraqi Pasand Musanfeen, etc.

They said that the ongoing economic crisis in Pakistan has badly affected women and children.

About 20 million women and children have been pushed beneath the poverty line and it is feared that 10 million more women would be pushed beneath the poverty line by next year.

They said that the rulers at the behest of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) had come up with policies to reduce the real income of workers by sixty per cent.

The price hike has increased by 40 per cent and daily use commodities have already gone beyond the reach of the common man.

They said that amid this economic crisis, forced sacking of workers from factories and workplaces are affecting most women workers. In the industrial sector hundreds of thousands of women are working as salaried slaves. Ninety-five per cent of these women workers are deprived of permanent employment, minimum wages, a weekly holiday, social security and pension, they added.

There is no equal wages for equal work for women here. Sexual harassment at the workplace is also common. International brands and their local suppliers are openly violating labour laws, said the speakers.

They said regressive thoughts and tribal and feudal traditions in society were not ready to accept women as equal citizens.

They said that the Pakistani state was witness to anti-women biases. Pakistan’s official policies are continuously repressing women, exploiting classes, enslaving people including religious minorities and transgenders while promoting undemocratic and anti-society elements.

The state has failed to stop crimes of kidnapping of Hindu women and their forced conversions.

The speakers at the rally said that it is high time that the state should shun anti-women narrative and abolish all discriminatory laws against women.

Women leaders in medicine

A forum aimed at providing mentorship, training and support to emerging women leaders in medicine and surgery was launched at the press club on Wednesday.

The Women in Leadership League in Medicine (Will-Med) is set up by President of Pakistan GI & Liver Diseases Society and Director of the Gastroenterology Residency programme at Liaquat National Hospital in partnership with Ferozsons Laboratories Limited.

“The objective of this forum is to encourage women enrolled in medical colleges to join the workforce and realize their full potential,” Prof Lubna Kamani, patron and founding chair of Will-Med shared, adding that the network would arrange webinars, symposia, and workshops to promote this objective.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2023