A march during Covid’s time is a difficult thing to plan safely. For women in Pakistan, determined to have their “Aurat March” today, there are other risks – for their physical safety, as well as for abuse and online trolling.
Noor is the organizer of masked rallies across the country. She said she could not provide her surname for fear of reprisals for her work.
“The pandemic has significantly hampered mobilization,” said Noor, who added that shutting down public transport alone has been a major obstacle for women in the country. But it is the health crisis that is the focus of this year’s marches in Pakistan to mark International Women’s Day.
The event is being organized online and also on the streets, with organizers encouraging women to stay home if the health risks outweigh the benefits. Those who take to the streets are being asked to wear political slogans on their masks.
Online, women are using the hashtag #PatriarchyKaPandemic (“Patriarchate Pandemic”) to mobilize women and call for daily violence against women by “airing dirty clothes,” said Noor. During the pandemic, Pakistan saw a sharp increase in cases of domestic violence, along with an increase in the burden of domestic work and care imposed on women workers.
With about 600,000 cases of Covid-19 in Pakistan, this year’s manifesto for the march is markedly different from previous years due to the increased focus on health. Women are asking the government to increase the health budget to 5% of GDP; implement a Covid-19 plan for women and minorities; combat violence against women; attribute equal recognition to women’s work; and allocate more health resources to women and transgender people.
In recent weeks, Noor has organized medical camps to talk to the poorest Pakistani women about health problems in their marginalized communities, most of which are linked to water and sanitation. Pakistan has one of the worst access to drinking water in the world, with almost 80% of the population without access to drinking water.
“You realize how inaccessible and inaccessible health is for many communities,” said Noor. “I may have access to health care, but they cannot.”
Muqaddas Afzal, 25, vice president of a group called the Progressive Students Collective in Lahore, said the pandemic further exposed economic and social injustices. “It also taught us that the patriarchy pandemic is much worse than the Covid pandemic. Covid will be eradicated, but what about patriarchy? “
“It is a very current topic,” said digital rights activist Nighat Dad. “In the pandemic, women’s health problems came first. I would say it is a health emergency, to be very honest. ”
This is evident in the country’s maternal mortality statistics: 140 maternal deaths per 100,000 births. Almost half of Pakistani mothers face malnutrition and almost 40% of children under five suffer from stunted growth.
Women are also calling for a fairer distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine in Pakistan, one of the few countries that has allowed private companies to import vaccines without price limits, exacerbating social inequalities.
The pandemic has “uncovered many myths” about policies, said Zainab Najeeb, 28, who teaches gender and feminism at Lahore University of Management Sciences. Najeeb said that women faced a significant increase in home care work, exacerbated by the increase in domestic violence.
An organizer of the march in Islamabad, Tooba Syed, said: “The struggle against patriarchy is a struggle for the recognition of care work and the role of women in social reproduction.”
In the early days of the virus, health workers who participated in mass door-to-door awareness campaigns about Covid-19 faced hostility and violence. “As domestic violence increased during the pandemic, women health workers were the only form of care available to survivors of domestic violence,” said Syed. “They are the backbone of the country’s public health system.”
Organizers are also calling for universal access to contraception and safe family planning, Noor said. “Our health care system does not believe that women can make their own decisions. This is our cultural mentality – there are so many obstacles and limits in women’s decision-making. We have to march and continue working on this movement.
“When we march, we see many women on the streets. It is liberating and gives a lot of hope. You see how many women are together in this and you see hope for change. “