Pakistani women challenging toxic masculinity are being vilified.
By
March 16, 2021
Pakistani women rally on the International Women’s Day in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, March 8, 2019.
Credit: AP Photo/Muhammad Rizwan
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On March 8, dozens of Pakistani women in all major cities took to the streets to highlight discrimination, inequality, violence, abuse, and injustices against them and other marginalized communities in the country. Despite threats and right-wing attacks on the Aurat March last year, the demonstrators were resilient and undeterred in putting forward their demands, which emphasized prioritizing healthcare for women during the pandemic and ensuring protection against patriarchal violence among others. But as is all-too-typical for Pakistan, the women’s day demonstration on the only day when women voice their concerns in large numbers was met by resistance and a smear campaign.
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Images and videos of activists waving a flag at a Womenâs Day March in Pakistan in 2021 have been shared in Facebook, Twitter and YouTube posts that claim that they were waving the French tricolour national flag. The claim is false: the flag seen in the posts represents a Pakistani feminist organization and is red, white and purple â not the French blue, white and red tricolour.
The claim was published on Twitter here on March 9, 2021, by Hans Masroor Badvi, the central deputy secretary of information of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party for the province of Sindh.