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Healthcare is focus of event to mark International Women’s Day, as organisers say pandemic has led to setbacks in rights
A march during the time of Covid is a difficult thing to plan safely. For Pakistan’s women, determined to have their “Aurat March” today, there are other risks – to their (...)
Pakistan’s “Aurat Azadi March” (Women’s Freedom March), with its slogan “my body, my choice,” has become an extremely polarizing annual event. Its organizers are now facing increasing threats from right-wing groups.
Prior to the inception of the “Aurat Azadi March,” or the women’s freedom march, (...)
A popular actor was accused of harassment – now those who spoke against him are being charged under law meant to protect women
It takes a lot to rattle Leena Ghani. As an artist turned activist helping to raise the voices of Pakistan’s women, she has often fielded abuse, threats and harassment. (...)
Household workers face abuse and exploitation in plain sight
I was handed a glass of water while Salma* moved the extra clothes from the charpoy and adjusted herself right in front of me, fixing her shawl and making sure I was comfortable where I was sitting.
After a few minutes of small talk (...)
GUESSTIMATES are no substitute for hard data. Efforts to improve development indicators must be based on comprehensive, granular information that highlights weak spots and challenges. Initiatives can then be tailored to the situation on ground, thereby saving time and money. Without this (...)
THE pandemic has had a large impact on women who work in the informal sectors of Pakistan’s economy. And most women in Pakistan work in this sector, where they already have lower pays, longer work hours, irregular coverage of benefits, no job security and no social protections. Non-essential (...)
If your kidnapper-husband says you are 18, or have had your first period, no more questions are asked in Pakistan about abduction-conversions of young girls.
Their names change, their dreadful stories remain the same. It can be Kavita, Maria, Simran or Huma, what bonds their doomed fates in (...)
ACCORDING to Human Rights Watch, almost 1,000 women are murdered in Pakistan in the name of honour each year — killed on the grounds of ‘unacceptable’ amorous relationships, defiance of physical or cyber-gendered spaces, brazenness in dressing and language or perceived immorality.
Qandeel Baloch (...)
THE prime minister earned considerable credit the other day when he directed the relevant authorities to prepare for the release of women prisoners detained, or likely to be detained in future, for non-payment of fines, and to pay for the fines out of public funds.
This should be taken as the (...)
Stones, sticks and shoes were pelted at the campaigners in the country’s capital, Islamabad.
New Delhi: To mark International Women’s Day on Sunday, thousands of women took to the streets of Pakistan and marched through the capital of Islamabad and other cities, for what has come to be known as (...)
Young activists and their older counterparts explain why they are uniting to fight for women’s rights in Pakistan.
Thousands of women have marched across Pakistan’s main urban centres to mark International Women’s Day.
It is the third successive year that the Aurat March, women’s march, has been (...)
Women marching with placards, using slogans like ‘mera jism meri marzi’ are not ‘good women’. And how dare they oppose maulanas and misogynists, Pakistan’s real feminists?
We are still a few days away from 8 March and regressive Pakistani men are already uncomfortable. This is an achievement. (...)
PAKISTAN is a country where generation after generation of children, especially girls, have been deprived of education. However, a low level of female literacy is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gender inequality in Pakistan. Look at any gender indicator and Pakistan is a country (...)
THERE are good men in Pakistan. Somewhere sitting in some corner, perhaps a library or an office, are men who do not believe in being condescending and cruel, men who do not constantly interrupt women to insert their own thoughts or wishes or meaningless bluster. Somewhere there are men who (...)
JUNAID Hafeez was arrested on March 13, 2013, after an FIR was registered accusing him of blasphemy. At the time, he was a visiting lecturer in English literature at Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), in the city of Multan. His period of incarceration in a high security ward of New Central (...)
SINDH is facing a domestic violence epidemic, and yet hardly any woman in the province has benefited from the passage of the Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Act.
Sindhi media does little to publicise domestic violence cases or highlight the law’s provisions, for lack of resources or (...)
The Awami Workers Party (AWP) has condemned the Islamabad administration for not allowing an indoor educative programme for women activists.
Women Democratic Front had planned a two-day political school for its activists and booked a youth hostel hall. But the management of the Pakistan Youth (...)
Chief justice says in televised speech that abuse survivors will be able to ‘speak their heart without any fear’
Pakistan is to set up more than 1,000 courts dedicated to tackling violence against women, the country’s top judge has announced, seeking to tackle a problem activists say the criminal (...)
In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s Gilgit-Baltistan, exists a remarkable oasis with high literacy rates and gender equality.
In the disputed Karakoram mountains of northern Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war last month, the isolated Hunza valley feels (...)
Aurat [Women] March started last year in Karachi and spread to the whole country this year. It has emerged as a new wave of feminism in Pakistan — and with that, the march organizers have been receiving rape and death threats online.
Islamabad: Aurat March 2019 was held on March 8 as part of (...)
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