The Aurat March (Urdu: عورت مارچ, lit. 'Women's March') is a non-violent annual socio-political demonstration in Pakistani cities such as Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar to observe International Women's Day on 8 March.
The first Aurat Marches were begun by women's collectives in parallel with the Pakistani #MeToo movement on International Women's Day. The first march was held on 8 March 2018 in Karachi. Marches were organized in 2019 in Lahore and Karachi by Hum Auratein (We the Women, a women's collective) and elsewhere in the country, including Islamabad, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Peshawar, Mardan, and Faisalabad, by Women Democratic Front (WDF), Women's Action Forum (WAF), and other groups. The march was endorsed by the Lady Health Workers Association and included representatives of a number of women's-rights organizations.
The march calls for greater accountability for violence against women and supports women who experience violence and harassment at the hands of security forces, in public spaces, at home, and in the workplace. Women and men carry posters with slogans such as Ghar ka Kaam, Sab ka Kaam ("Housework is everyone's work"), and Mera Jism Meri Marzi ("My body, my choice") became a rallying cry.
The march manifesto demands economic justice, including implementation of labor rights and the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010, recognition of women's unpaid contributions to the "care economy", and provision of maternity leave and daycare centers to ensure women's inclusion in the labor force. It also demands access to safe air and drinking water, protection of animals and wildlife, recognition of women's participation in the production of food and cash crops, access to a fair judicial system, the inclusion of women with disabilities and the transgender community, reproductive justice, access to public spaces, inclusion in educational institutions, the rights of religious minorities, promotion of an anti-war agenda, and an end to police brutality and forced disappearances.
According to Zuneera Shah, the etymology of the word aurat is misogynistic and it has controversial roots in Arabic. Due to this, many Indian, Iranian, and Arab feminists find the word problematic. Western dominance of feminism has encouraged a dislike of the movement in countries such as Pakistan. Localization of the struggle for women's rights is important to South Asian activists relating to the feminist movement. Shah says that with the Aurat March, concepts such as pidar shahi (patriarchy) are receiving a wider circulation.
The theme of the 2018 march was "Equality", and the theme of the 2019 march was "Sisterhood and Solidarity". According to Nighat Dad, "The agenda of this march was to demand resources and dignity for women, for the transgender community, for religious minorities and those on the economic margins but more importantly to acknowledge that women's emancipation is inherently linked with the improvement of all mistreated groups and minorities". The themes of the 2020 march were khudmukhtari (autonomy) and violence, sexual and economic.
The Marchers mostly rely on obstructive nonviolence tactics that disrupt injustice without using force, like public demonstrations, marches, and symbolic occupation of civic spaces. Constructive nonviolence tactics are also deployed to build solidarity, through grassroot education, talking circles, legal awareness campaigns, and networking opportunities.
Hundreds of signs at the march highlighted fundamental rights such as access to education and employment. "Mera Jism Meri Marzi" (My body, my choice) became the best-known slogan of the march. Other slogans included "Why are you afraid of my self-determination?", "A woman's right to autonomy over her own body", and "In fact, everyone should get to decide for themselves what happens to their body". Slogans in the 2018 march included "Our rights are not up for grabs and neither are we", "Girls just wanna have fundamental human rights", "Transwomen are women; shut up!", "Tu kare tou Stud, Mai Karun tou slut" ("If you do it you're a stud, but if I do it I'm a slut"), "Safe-street program for women", "Stop being menstrual-phobic", "Consent ki Tasbeeh Rozana Parhen" ("Ask for consent every time") and "Paratha rolls, not gender roles".
In March 2019, signs appeared saying "Jab tak aurat tang rahay gi, jang rahay gi, jang rahay gi" ("As long as women are restricted, war will persist, war will persist"), "Men of quality will never be afraid of equality" and "Keep your dick pics to yourself". Another had a drawing of a vagina and two ovaries with the slogan, "Grow a pair!" Other signs read, "If you like the headscarf so much, tie it around your eyes"; a girl sitting with her legs spread and "Lo Beth Gayi Sahi Se" ("Here, I'm sitting correctly"), and "Nazar teri gandi aur purdah mein keroun" ("Your gaze is filthy, yet I'm the one who has to veil?") "Aaj waqai maa behn ek ho rahi hai" depicts all women coming together without differences. One sign said that perhaps because women are no longer tawaifs, some consider every independent woman one. Others read, "My shirt is not short, it's your mindset that is narrow" and "Oh, I am sorry. Does this hurt your male ego?" "These are my streets too" claimed public spaces.
In her article, Ailia Zehra analyzes a sign reading: "If Cynthia does it, she's applauded. If I do it, I'm the villain." (Cynthia D. Ritchie – an American living in Pakistan – tweeted a photo of herself on a bicycle to encourage women to use public spaces, unaware of her perceived privileged status as a white woman).
Nighat Dad, who organized the women's march in Lahore, said that people were angry about the posters because most Pakistanis – especially men – were not yet ready to allow the marchers freedom of choice. Dad said that topics such as women's sexuality and their rights to their own bodies are being discussed for the first time because of the march, but "Online harassment has gone too far in terms of death and rape threats to the organizers and also to the marchers." According to Nisha Susan, the slogan "Lo Baith Gayi Theek Se" ("Here, I'm sitting correctly") is not about woman-spreading but is an opposition to the constant policing of women's bodies.
Opponents called the marchers "vulgar" opportunists who had transgressed conservative Pakistani values and replaced a struggle for rights with an anti-Islamic agenda. Feminist writer Sadia Khatri describes the narrative in an article, saying that posters advocating education, inheritance, and marital rights receive less attention. Feminism based on respectability is not feminism, and gatekeeping encourages oppression.
In the article "Womansplaining the Aurat March: Dear men, here's why Pakistan's women are asserting their rights", Rimmel Mohydin tells men to "smile, you'll look prettier that way." Mohydin notes that women are the subject of sexist jokes, but are considered offensive if they make sexist jokes: "Every wisecrack, every sassy one-liner, every appealing slogan masked years and years of invisible pain that women have suffered". A woman can tell a man that she won't warm his bed if he doesn't warm his own food, but what upsets men is that she could laugh at his expense. Mohydin writes, "It is difficult to know where to place your feet when you find that the backs that you have been walking on are now standing up. That's why the author's compassion is with misogynist politicians." Referring poster slogan "Keep your dick pics to yourself ... What seems to have affronted the male collective the most is the shattering of a fantasy world where women enjoy being subjected to unsolicited pictures of male genitals ... Nobody seems to say anything to the sender, but the reluctant receiver is apparently the problem. Either she likes it (which, to them, makes her a 'slut') or she doesn't (which offends them). So as usual, women cannot win ... Are they upset at the loss of this opportunity to titillate women with their phallus? Why are they all shrivelling up? Have protesting women given them performance anxiety? ... The placards were a mirror and instead of taking this moment as an opportunity to introspect, they have decided to beat their chest instead. Not their slain bodies, not their acid-burnt faces, not their immobility, not their lack of representation, not the dearth of affordable housing, not the moral policing their choices and bodies are subjected to, not the denial of female education, not the constant threat of sexual harassment and onslaught, not the social structures that cut women's potential in half, not the exploitation, not the objectification, not the fact that for many, women are still not human".