On 8 March 2021, the Aurat March Lahore chapter marked International Women’s Day in Lahore with their fourth annual demonstration that set out from the press club.
Second runner-up
International Women’s Day rallies in Lahore
- Aun Jafri
Participants assembled behind the Aurat March banner in a sea of placards and flags.
Aurat March Lahore volunteers reenacted an Urdu performance of the Chilean anti-rape anthem ‘The Rapist is You’ (Aur Rapist Ho Tum) under a public display of painted women’s garments titled ‘Dirty Linen’ depicting real-life accounts of abuse that women, transgender persons and children had experienced.
That year, the MehnatKash Aurat Rally also observed International Women’s Day in Lahore on 7 March 2021 in front of Lakshmi Chowk. Their demonstration included a street theatre performance depicting the plight of bonded female labourers.
Another performance at the MehnatKash Aurat Rally 2021 was a dance that honoured marginalised working classes.
Next year in 2022 on International Women’s Day, a unit of lady police officers provided security protocol for the Aurat March Lahore demonstration amidst heightened threats to the organisers and participants.
The Aurat March Lahore demonstration in 2022 carried slogans drawn from Aurat March Lahore’s manifesto, as various media personnel covered the event.
Aurat March Lahore’s own security team is also visible here, wearing green high-visibility vests to allow participants to spot them easily as they directed people to sit for the performances.
A key performance during Aurat March Lahore’s 2022 demonstration was that conducted by the transgender community.
Petals were scattered in this performance that highlighted the wave of killings of transgender people during the past year and honoured their memories.
Aun Jafri, 42, is a Lahore-based photojournalist currently employed with a local private television, and has been affiliated with the English newspaper Dawn in the past. He owes his focus on human rights and women's empowerment issues to his illustrious father, the late Azhar Hussain Jafri, who was awarded the prestigious Presidential Pride of Performance Award for rendering meritorious services as a photojournalist and for documenting the political and women's rights movement through his photographs.
"I chose to cover International Women's Day rallies for my submission based on the event's importance and the kind of attention it has garnered over the years since its inception. As an activist at the personal level and a photojournalist at the professional level, I have been fascinated by the success of the Aurat March and similar rallies as manifested by its increasing participation. The opposition it draws from conservative sections of the society is instructive of the challenges still facing the women's empowerment movement in Pakistan."
"The right to freedom of assembly is important since it provides the society's weakest sections with a platform to collectively voice their grievances, and absence of the same might result in their complete exclusion from the policy-making process."