Namrata Sharma

The world has been celebrating March 8 as the International Women’s Day (IWD for the last 110 years in order to raise voice against gender-based inequalities all over the world. It is a painful matter that even today women have to demand for rights as gender discrimination and bias are rampant. It is a shame that women’s rights and rights of the transgender and sexual minority communities still need to be raised separately. The human rights movement has missed the boat somewhere. The movement around the world may have been able to promulgate laws which protect human rights with focus on women’s rights, but implementation is a far cry.

This year’s March 8 article by Marvi Sirmed published on the Friday Times, Pakistan sums up why we need to now look at new waves of feminism and ways of rebutting the atrocities still committed against women. Marvi, who is a Pakistani journalist now teaching Human Rights Journalism in Connecticut, writes, “I have watched organisers, participants and supporters of the Aurat March relentlessly and graciously offer responses to every invective, accusation, ‘misunderstanding’. Still, they are abused, insulted and attacked (by Lal Masjid goons last year); their posters and artwork is vandalised; they are dragged in courts; and they are accused of blasphemy – which is akin to giving a go-ahead to a vigilante mob to lynch and kill. This year is no different. A government minister has written a letter to prime minister to ban the Aurat March and instead mark the day as a ‘Hijab Day’. A leader of one of the opposition parties has threatened to use batons against women if they hold the Aurat March.”

Aurat March
Since 2018, Pakistani feminists have been organising public demonstrations on March 8 to mark the International Women’s Day (IWD). They call it the Aurat March - Aurat in Urdu is women. This year the politicians want to declare March 8 as the “Hijab Day”!!! It is time for all of us who stand for human rights all over the world to denounce such discriminatory remarks and proposals announced by anyone anywhere on earth. It exposes the patriarchal, religious fundamentalist psyche probably garnered by the fear imposed in their mindsets by the several examples shown and set by women in excelling in all sectors.

Juxtaposed to the Pakistani politician and religious fundamentalists’ quest to prevent March 8 celebration as IWD, in Nepal the government has declared March 8 as a national holiday and encourages programmess and rallies to be hosted by governments and non-government organisations where politicians, activists and all join to create awareness against gender-based violence and felicitate women achievers. However, does this mean that women in Nepal have no suffrages and face no gender based inequalities?

Take the most recent rape case that is covered by the media almost every day in Nepal today. Actor Paul Shah, a 33-year-old Nepali movie heartthrob is accused of raping a 17-year old singer several times. There are many recorded voice messages between the two showing that Shah had frequently established physical and sexual relations with the teenage girl. He is now in police custody but has huge fan following in social media and public demonstrations in the streets in his support, slandering the victim in such a way that she has expressed a desire to end her life. There are media reports that even some noted women rights activists have supported Shah. The question raised is why the girl has brought this issue out in the public after a year! To me, this question is a slap in the face of human rights movement all over the world.

Pro-woman laws
Also to bring out issues like these, girls and women should be given ample time to launch their complaint when they are ready. It is the job of the police and the state to find out the facts. Nepal does have a series of laws that have been amended and promulgated since 1990 which are pro girls, women, transgender, and sexual minority communities. But there are a series of loopholes which prevent this community from actually enjoying all their rights as Nepali citizens.

Therefore, just having laws in favour of girls and women and giving a national holiday on IWD is not enough. A fourth wave of feminism looking at loopholes where the boat might have been missed in establishing full human rights for girls, women and all by ending all forms of gender based discrimination is the requirement of today. Going back to Miraz’s article where she writes that the Aurat March marks the fourth wave of feminism in Pakistan which has already succeeded in achieving the impossible. “Patriarchy is shrieking. It has started feeling helpless, and is seeking refuge behind the religion, culture, and patriotism. Whose last refuge is this?” questions the Pakistani journalist.

The time has now come for people, of all colours and genders all over the world, to now try to prevent anyone from taking the last refuge and to join hands in the fourth wave of feminism globally to change the mindsets with fast-track approach.

(Namrata Sharma is a journalist and human rights activist.namrata1964@yahoo.comTwitter handle: @NamrataSharmaP)