16 Oct Why We Protest: Aurat March

The women’s movement in Pakistan had begun in the late 1970s as a response to the edicts of General Zia-ul-Haq’s brutal regime. The movement was in response to laws that essentially stripped women of their human rights. Their tireless campaigning did not stop until the end of Zia’s rule and the restoration of democracy.

Today, the women’s movement in Pakistan is revived and has been standing up for women and minority rights every year since 2018, where they’ve banded together on 8th March, walking and chanting and making themselves heard. They call themselves the Aurat March (women’s march) and in cities across Pakistan, women come out of their houses to reclaim the streets. In this documentary, we look at what goes into the making of the historic Lahore chapter of Pakistan’s Aurat March. We try and unpack what it means to be a woman in Pakistan today, and why they march.