Instead of March 8th, this year the Aurat March Lahore will be held on February 12th—Pakistani National Women’s Day. The theme for Aurat March 2025 is “Feminist History” which is to pay tribute to past and ongoing feminist struggles in the country. It is to commemorate the women from The All-Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA), Sindhiani Tehreek; Alliance Against Sexual Harassment (AASHA), the labour movement; those from Pakistan Women Lawyers’ Association (PWLA) and the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) who stood against Zia ul Haq’s fascist and oppressive regime among others.
In Pakistan, February 12 is a milestone in the women’s rights movement. On this day in 1983, women resisted the military dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq by putting on a public demonstration despite martial law regulations that banned all political activity, processions, and public protests. The protesting women were from different walks of life; labourers, social workers, lawyers, teachers, and so on. The iconic women of the WAF and PWLA organised the rally to protest and to file a petition to the then Chief Justice of Lahore High Court, Javaid Iqbal, against the law of evidence which would reduce the testimony of women to half that of men.
Ms. Khawar Mumtaz, a WAF member and former Chairperson of National Commission on the Status of Women recalls, “Section 144 had been imposed so we planned to reach the high court in small groups of twos and threes. My 10 years old daughter was with me but when we reached at Hall Road in front of the office of AGHS Legal Aid Cell, we saw there was already a lot of police who had cordoned off the road so that we could not go ahead.”
“Habib Jalib began reciting his revolutionary poetry and then all of a sudden one of the protesters, Mubaraka, from Democratic Women’s Association had slipped through the barriers and was gesturing for us to follow her. Abruptly, there were clouds of tear gas and a brutal baton charge by police on the demonstrators. Many women were pulled to the police station and locked up”, Ms. Khawar remembers.
Ms. Mumtaz relates vividly, “we continued our efforts there, we sang revolutionary songs in the police station, we prepared a press statement and made it possible to get it out. I myself was teaching at the Punjab University at that time, Madeeha Gohar was teaching at Kinnaird College, we both lost our job due to this struggle.”
Because of fundamentalism, right-wing ideologies, and the absence of secular protections, Marchers deal with cyber harassment, sexual harassment in public places, and stigmatisation
In the 80s, the state made effective use of religious forces to achieve its power. It quietened political parties, clinched the press and academia with censorship, and banned students and trade unions. The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) was somehow active in Sindh, but in Punjab was hushed. However, this demonstration became a symbol of women’s resistance to all forms of oppression and belief in an equal, equitable, and just democratic order.
Neelam Hussain another WAF member and Executive Coordinator of Simorgh Women's Resource and Publication Centre recalls from 1982 when Allah Bux was sentenced to death by stoning, and Fehmida, a minor, was awarded 100 stripes in public. The women’s groups protested vigorously against this injustice and resultantly, after a retrial, the couple was acquitted.
WAF was formed by some of these determined women, WAF was —and still is— a voice against all sorts of injustices, but especially against women and minorities. WAF strongly remonstrated against the Iraq-Kuwait war in 1990 and raised a loud voice for peace. WAF protested against the inclusion of religion in the national identity card and separate electorate system. Members of WAF initiated to formation Joint Action Committee for People’s Rights (JAC) in 1986 which is a vibrant forum for human rights.
“After Lahore, there was WAF Karachi, then Peshawar, and so on. There is no hierarchal order in WAF and all is by democratic norms. There was a firm decision to not accept outside funding for WAF. All businesses ran voluntarily. We were very political. However, the young feminists of the recent Aurat March Movement are trying to link personal to the political and I appreciate their courageous efforts”, Ms. Neelam elaborates.
The Aurat March got momentum in 2018, with the motto of ending patriarchy. It is a young feminists led movement while the mature feminists are their supporters. They conduct the Aurat March annually on 8th March, and during the whole year they do activities such as press releases, small demonstrations and artistic work.
Our feminist history teaches us not only conflict and anger but also how to bring joy and hope to movements
Due to Marchers’ challenge to patriarchy and bold struggle for fundamental rights, they faced lots of backlash. Because of fundamentalism, right-wing ideologies, and the absence of secular protections, Marchers deal with cyber harassment, sexual harassment in public places, and stigmatisation. All these emerging challenges are a big ask from the State and society to find the solution, consider women as equal citizens of this country, conceive pro-women policies and laws, and ensure civic spaces for women and girls. Aurat Marchers say “We resist to live; we march to transform”.
Ms. Hadia, Volunteer Aurat March Lahore, describes the aim of Aurat March 2025 in three points. “First, to highlight that we stand on the shoulders of many feminist foremothers who came before us. We honour them. Second, we want to resist the erasure of women, transgender people, resistance movement from our histories and collective memory. Thirdly, but sadly, so many issues we are agitating for today — against harassment, safety from violence in the home and the street, respect for our bodily autonomy, dignified labour, freedom of religion, free speech, resisting censorship, and respect for democratic values and processes — are not new. Generations of resistance movements have struggled for the same demands. We want to remind society and the State that we must march towards progress, but here we are still fighting for the same issues!”
Nadia, another volunteer of Aurat March spoke to Tribune that, “celebrating each other’s struggle is important, since we need to keep finding ways to keep the hope alive, so those who come after us see the beauty of feminist resistance too. Our feminist history teaches us not only conflict and anger but also how to bring joy and hope to movements. And yet there are so many Indigenous feminist movements that most of us still don’t know about, so this year with our theme of ‘Feminist History’ we aim to highlight their struggles and experiences that have paved the way for a better future for us. We hope that this becomes a small step towards documenting and archiving all feminist movements.”
In 2025, because of the senior feminists so much has changed, yet there is lots remained to transform. Today Baloch women defiantly lead the feminist movement. Women in Waak Tehreek are creating a space for themselves in the Pakhtun movement and struggle to create awareness among Pakhtun women about their political, economic, social and legal rights. The overlooked history and determination and defiance of today need a spotlight.
The Aurat March 2025 is to honour the past and celebrate the present of feminist history. Those who believe in equal rights and democracy should join this March on February 12 to mark the 1983’s historic protest on Lahore’s Mall Road when women bravely stood against tyrannical state, protesting Zia’s draconian laws.