Lahore:
Authorities in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore have denied permission for an International Women’s Day rally, which regularly draws fierce backlash in the conservative, patriarchal country.
Since 2018, marches have been held in major cities across Pakistan to draw attention to women’s rights.
The Lahore city government cited the “controversial maps and banners” usually displayed by march participants and security concerns as reasons for the decision, which were detailed in a notice to march organizers late Friday.
Counter-protests called “Haya (modesty)” are often staged by religious groups to call for the preservation of Islamic values.
“It is a violation of our rights. This raises questions about the state’s ability to administer the right to freedom of assembly for both groups,” Hiba Akbar, an organizer of Aurat (women’s) March Lahore, told AFP.
Lahore authorities have allowed the Haya march to be held this year despite the ban on the Aurat march.
Organizers of the Aurat March in Pakistan have often had to resort to legal action to counter attempts to ban it.
The Aurat March rallies have sparked controversy for banners and placards waved by participants, raising issues such as divorce, sexual harassment and menstruation.
Organizers and participants have been accused of promoting Western, liberal values and disrespecting religious and cultural sensibilities.
Much of Pakistani society operates under a strict code of honor, systematizing the oppression of women in matters such as the right to choose whom to marry, reproductive rights and even the right to education.
Hundreds of women are killed by men every year in Pakistan for ‘honour’.
Rights group Amnesty International said Lahore’s decision “constitutes an unlawful and unnecessary restriction on the right to assembly”.
Authorities in the capital Islamabad, citing security concerns, have banned the Aurat march to a city park where a woman was gang raped in February.
“We are a feminist movement, we will not be in parks but on the streets,” said a statement from the march organizers there.
In 2020, groups of hardline Islamist men showed up in vans and threw stones at women participating in the Aurat march.
Women have long fought for basic rights in Pakistan, where activists say men commit “pervasive and persistent” violence against them.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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