Women Challenge Patriarchal Authoritarianism

... On February 12, 1983, the Pakistani women’s rights organization Women’s Action Forum (WAF), in collaboration with the Punjab Women Lawyers Association, gathered hundreds of women for a nonviolent march on a main thoroughfare of the city of Lahore. They marched while carrying petitions against a newly proposed law, the Qanoon-e-Shahadat (Law of Evidence), and eventually staged an impromptu sit-in near the High Court. The proposed law defined women as secondary citizens, making a woman’s testimony in court worth only half that of a man. This prejudicial law would have wide-reaching consequences, particularly in the determination of cases of rape and assault against women. The protest was a pivotal event for anti-authoritarian movements in Pakistan as the first march to defy the total ban on public assemblies under the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq. The women’s march was met with a violent show of force from the state. The police charged the crowd with raised batons (lathi), beating people and arresting dozens of women. They fired teargas shells to break up the crowd, creating an environment of chaos and fear.