National Women's Day (Pakistan)
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National Women's Day in Pakistan is 12 February of each year, chosen to mark the first women's march in Pakistan against the
Zia ul Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...
's
military regime A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
. The date 12 February 1983 is significant in the history of
women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
in Pakistan because the first such march was brutally suppressed by the martial law enforced by the police of General
Zia ul Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...
's
regime In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...
. The Day is over three weeks before
International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...
when the
Aurat March The Aurat March ( ur, or , English: Women's March) is an annual socio-political demonstration in Pakistani cities such as Lahore, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Faisalabad, Multan, Quetta, Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar to observe International Women ...
es take place in Pakistan.


Annual commemorations

Pakistan's National Women's Day is held annually on 12 February to mark the first women's march in the country held on that date in 1983. December 22 is also celebrated as a National Day for Pakistani Working Women. These two days, in addition to
International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...
, were acknowledged for celebration by Pakistan's government from the time of
Yousaf Raza Gillani Yusuf Raza Gilani (Urdu: ; born 9 June 1952), is a Pakistani politician who served as 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 25 March 2008, until his retroactive disqualification and ouster by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 26 April 2012. He ...
the former Prime Minister.


2012

Among those honoured in 2012 were
Shahnaz Wazir Ali Shahnaz Wazir Ali is a Pakistani politician who served as member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013. Political career She was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan as a candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party on a seat ...
( PPP's adviser to the PM),
Nilofar Bakhtiar Nilofar Bakhtiar ( ur, نیلوفر بختیار ) (born 9 September 1957) is a public official in Pakistan. She was Federal Minister for Tourism in Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's cabinet until a scandal forced her to resign. She remains a senat ...
(PML-Q Senator),
Bushra Gohar Bushra Gohar ( ps, بشرا ګوهر; ur, بشریٰ گوہر) is a Pakistani Pashtun politician and a senior leader of the National Democratic Movement (NDM). She has served as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013. S ...
(ANP MNA), and Kishwer Zehra (MQM MNA), for proactively working on women's rights related bills. 2013 National Women's Day was commemorated at
Fatima Jinnah Park Fatima Jinnah Park ( ur, ), also known as Capital Park or F-9 Park, is a public recreational park that spans the whole of Sector F-9 of Islamabad, Pakistan. It is named after ''Mādar-e Millat'' Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of the founde ...
with awareness stalls about
gender-based violence Gender-related violence or gender-based violence includes any kind of violence directed against people due to their gender or gender identification. Types of gender-related violence include: * Violence against women (sometimes referred to simply as ...
, where activist presented skits and speeches. The 2013 event was observed by women from ''
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...
'' and
FATA , conventional_long_name = Federally Administered Tribal Areas , nation = Pakistan , subdivision = Autonomous territory , image_flag = Flag of FATA.svg , image_coat = File:Coat of arms ...
who distributed awards to women journalists, politicians, and activists in the women's rights movement in Pakistan.


2015

An event at the Nomad Gallery in Islamabad included poetry by
Harris Khalique Harris Khalique ( ur, ; born 20 October 1966) is a Pakistani poet in Urdu and English and a civil society activist. Khalique has authored nine collections of poetry and two books of non-fiction. In March 2018, he received the Presidential Pride o ...
and Aliya Mirza. A song 'Kaun Kehta Hai Beikhtiyar Hoon Main' by Aaliya Mirza and sung by Zainab Fatima was released on National Women's Day. It was dedicated to the women who participated in the 1983 Women's March in Lahore.


2017

National Commission on the Status of Women National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) ( ur, ) is a Pakistani statutory body established by the President Pervez Musharraf, under the XXVI Ordinance dated 17 July 2000. It is an outcome of the national and international commitments of the G ...
(NCSW) held a 2017 National Women's Day event at Fatimah Jinnah Women University (FJWU) at
Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...
. A dialogue on the topic of 'Taking the women's agenda forward between women activists and parliamentarians' was addressed by The Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Samina Amin Qadir and
Tehmina Daultana Tehmina Daultana ( Punjabi, ur, ) is a Pakistani politician who had been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan. Political career Daultana was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan for the first time in 1993 Pakistani general ...
a Member of
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
.


2019

According to ''
Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...
'', on 2019 National Women's Day (Pakistan) two events were organized at Islamabad. One event was held at
National Press Club Organizations A press club is an organization for journalists and others professionally engaged in the production and dissemination of news. A press club whose membership is defined by the press of a given country may be known as a National Press ...
(NPC), which was addressed by
Khawar Mumtaz Khawar Mumtaz (born 29 June 1945) is a Pakistani women's rights activist, feminist author and university professor. She is the Former Chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) who served for three consecutive terms from ...
, the Chairperson of National Commission on Status of Women and also by Poet
Kishwar Naheed Kishwar Naheed ( ur, ) (born 1940) is a feminist Urdu poet and a writer from Pakistan. She has written several poetry books. She has also received awards including Sitara-e-Imtiaz for her literary contribution towards Urdu literature. Early l ...
. At NPC event participants acknowledged some progress on legal front but expressed concerns over continued cases of gendered violence like honor killings, child marriages, child abuse and weakening of democratic processes in preceding two years. In other event held at
National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage Heritage Museum ( ur, ), also known as Lok Virsa Museum is a museum administered and managed by Lok Virsa - National Institute of Folk & Traditional Heritage. It is a museum of history and culture in Islamabad, Pakistan, located on the Shakarpa ...
(Lok Virsa) was addressed by Federal Ombudsperson Kashmala Tariq. Complaint registration processes at Federal Ombudsman Secretariat for Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace ( FOSPAH) and Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010 were explained.


2020

The theme for the 2020 event in Karachi was "Women's social protection in the context of gender-based violence". Panelists talked about various socio-legal issues like gender-based violence, the role of the Sindh Commission on the Status of Women, the Women Development Department of Government of Sindh and NGOs in improving the status of women in the society. According to Xari Jalil, Women Action Forum Lahore members commemorated 2020 National Women's day event at Applied Socio-economic Research (ASR) Resource Centre with a session of speeches and poetry. At Lahore National Women's day was also commemorated at
Lahore College for Women University The Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) ( ur, ) Is a public university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 1922 with a capacity of 60 students, it now has a full-time enrollment of about 15,000 students and admits students at Intermed ...
; Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Bushra Mirza, Retired Justice Nasira Javed Iqbal, Women Development Minister Ashifa Riaz Fatyana addressed the event. According to Farman Ali, an exhibition of painting titled ' Laazim Hai Ke Hum Bhi Dekhengey' was held at Nomad Gallery Islamabad to commemorating the National Women's Day where in most of presented paintings highlighted the violence and pain endured by women in Pakistan's patriarchal culture.


2022

2022 National Women's Day, a Karachi event themed 'Zero Tolerance for Violence' was organised by the Sindh Commission on the Status of Women was held at
Frere Hall Frere Hall ( ur, ) is a building in Karachi, Pakistan that dates from the early British colonial era in Sindh. Completed in 1865, Frere Hall was originally intended to serve as Karachi's town hall, and now serves as an exhibition space and li ...
. The 2022 Lahore event happened at the Aurat Foundation (AF) office itself.


1983 Women's March, Lahore

On 12 February 1983, a women's march of about 100 people led by the
Women's Action Forum Women's Action Forum (WAF) is a women's rights organization in Pakistan. History Women's Action Forum (WAF) was established in Karachi in September, 1981Mall road in
Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
and proceeded toward Pakistan's
Lahore High Court The Lahore High Court () is based in Lahore, Pakistan. It was established as a high court on 21 March 1882. The Lahore High Court has jurisdiction over Punjab (Pakistan). The High Court's principal seat is in Lahore, but there are benches in th ...
to protest against the discriminatory
Law of Evidence The law of evidence, also known as the rules of evidence, encompasses the rules and legal principles that govern the proof of facts in a legal proceeding. These rules determine what evidence must or must not be considered by the trier of f ...
and other
Hudood Ordinances The Hudood Ordinances (Urdu ; also Romanized Hadood, Hadud, Hudud; singular form is ''Hadh'' or ''hadd'') are laws in Pakistan that were enacted in 1979 as part of then military ruler Zia-ul-Haq's "Islamisation" process. It replaced parts of the ...
. The proposed evidentiary law was intended to reduce the value of women's court testimony to half of that of men; the Hudood ordinances, reduced women's rights by the dictatorship's use of
Sharia law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the Five Pillars of Islam, religious precepts of Islam and is based on the Islamic holy books, sacred scriptures o ...
s. The marchers were
tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ad ...
sed and
baton charge A baton charge is a coordinated tactic for dispersing crowds of people, usually used by police or military in response to public disorder. In South Asia, a long bamboo stick, called ''lathi'' in Hindi, is used for crowd control, and the expressi ...
d by police injuring many women. Fifty of the marchers were arrested for defying the existent ban on public assembly.


Bibliography

* Khan, Ayesha. The Women's Movement in Pakistan: Activism, Islam and Democracy. United Kingdom, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018. * Weiss, Anita M.. Interpreting Islam, Modernity, and Women's Rights in Pakistan. United Kingdom, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Page 49. * *Imran, R. (2005) 'Legal injustices: The Zina Hudood Ordinance of Pakistan and its implications for women', Journal of International Women's Studies, 7(2), pp. 78–100 *Jalal, A. (1991). The Convenience of Subservience: Women and the State of Pakistan. In: Kandiyoti, D. (eds) Women, Islam and the State. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21178-4_4 * *Women's Movements in Asia: Feminisms and Transnational Activism. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2010. Page 167 *Re-Interrogating Civil Society in South Asia: Critical Perspectives from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. India, Taylor & Francis, 2021. Page 191 / 192


References

{{Reflist * Feminist events Women's rights in Pakistan February observances Remembrance days Feminist protests Observances in Pakistan Women's movements based in Pakistan