ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology said on Friday that it would support Aurat March, the country’s largest women’s rights event, if its participants adhere to social norms and values.
“We fully support our women in their struggle for due rights granted to them by Islam and the constitution,” Dr. Qibla Ayaz, chairman of the council, told Arab News. “But we cannot support lewd slogans and placards under the garb of the movement, which are against our values and culture.”
“Women should march to seek their due rights in jobs, education and inheritance, instead of stirring new controversies in the society through indecent slogans,” he said.
The council is a constitutional body that advises the legislature on whether or not a certain law is in accordance with Islamic principles.
Aurat March is organized across the country to mark International Women’s Day on March 8. The event, first held in 2018, has generated much controversy by sporting bold messages against patriarchy, which some have perceived as targeting the family system and social values. Court petitions were filed against the march, claiming it is an “anti-state activity.”
The Lahore High Court earlier this week gave a go-ahead to the march but requested that its organizers adhere to “decency and moral values,” and avoid hurting sentiments of “any sect and community through objectionable slogans, placards, banners and hate speeches.”
“Peaceful protest is right of every citizen,” Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Information and Broadcasting, said on Friday while addressing a function in Islamabad.
She added, however, that some women were sporting “objectionable slogans.”
“We should demand our rights without crossing social and religious limits,” Awan said.
Leaders of the country’s religio-political parties say they also support the women’s movement against harassment at workplace, acid attacks, forced marriage and domestic violence, but urge participants to respect religious and social limits.
“We have been organizing women rallies and walks for the past 25 years for their due rights in the society,” Dr. Samia Raheel Qazi, former lawmaker and senior member of Jamat-e-Islami, told Arab News, adding that her party strongly believed in “strong women, strong nation” and equal opportunities in all fields.
“Our activists should struggle for genuine rights of women … and avoid slogans like ‘my body, my choice’ which do nothing but divert the focus to non-issues,” she said.
Pakistan’s top religious body throws weight behind women’s march
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Pakistan’s top religious body throws weight behind women’s march
- Council of Islamic Ideology says supports women’s struggle for rights but rejects “lewd slogans and placards“
- Aurat March is scheduled for March 8 to mark international women’s day
Pakistan condemns Sudan attack that killed Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers, calls it war crime
- Six peacekeepers were killed in a drone strike in Kadugli as fighting between Sudan’s army and the RSF grinds on
- Pakistan, a major troop contributor to the UN, says perpetrators of the attack must be identified, brought to justice
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday extended condolences to the government and people of Bangladesh after six United Nations peacekeepers from the country were killed in a drone strike in southern Sudan, condemning the attack and describing it as a war crime.
The attack took place amid a full-scale internal conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group, following a power struggle after the collapse of Sudan’s post-Bashir political transition.
Omar Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for nearly three decades, was ousted by the military in 2019 after months of mass protests, but efforts to transition to civilian rule later faltered, plunging the country back into violence that has since spread nationwide.
The drone strike hit a logistics base of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, on Saturday, killing the Bangladeshi peacekeepers. Sudan’s army blamed the RSF for the attack, though there was no immediate public claim of responsibility.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the attack on @UNISFA in Kadugli, resulting in the tragic loss of 6 Bangladeshi peacekeepers & injuries to several others,” the country’s permanent mission to the UN said in a social media message. “We honor their supreme sacrifice in the service of peace, and express our deepest condolences to the government and people of #Bangladesh.”
“Such heinous attacks on UN peacekeepers amount to war crimes,” it added. “Perpetrators of this horrific attack must be identified and brought to justice. As a major troop-contributing country, we stand in complete solidarity with all Blue Helmets serving the cause of peace in the perilous conditions worldwide.”
According to Pakistan’s UN mission in July, the country has deployed more than 235,000 peacekeepers to 48 UN missions across four continents over the past eight decades.
Pakistan also hosts one of the UN’s oldest peacekeeping operations, the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), and is a founding member of the UN Peacebuilding Commission.
More than 180 Pakistani peacekeepers have lost their lives while serving under the UN flag.
Pakistan and Bangladesh have also been working in recent months to ease decades of strained ties rooted in the events of 1971, when Bangladesh — formerly part of Pakistan — became independent following a bloody war.
Relations have begun to shift following the ouster of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year amid mass protests.
Hasina later fled to India, Pakistan’s neighbor and arch-rival, creating space for Islamabad and Dhaka to rebuild their relationship.
