Dick Pics and Death Threats
The story of Pakistan’s largest-ever women’s march
As the blazing sun sets in Lahore, the city comes to life. The smell of roasting chickpeas mingles with the heady scent of burning incense, competing against the stench of rubbish and car fumes. Henna artists trace intricate designs on eager palms, in front of rows of kaleidoscopic bangles gleaming in the gaudy shop lights, while the latest Bollywood tunes blare out from crackling speakers. The music is hastily switched off as the melodious call to prayer echoes from the mosque, interrupted by car horns conveying the impatience of the drivers.
Domestic workers pull their veils over their faces as they scurry past, while groups of young men loiter around their motorbikes, as glamorous women wearing oversized sunglasses pull up outside the boutiques in European cars before zooming away. Despite the chocolate box temptations of the shops, the streets are no place for women.
Women in skinny jeans stood side by side with women in niqabs, holding placards with eye-catching statements such as “keep your dick pics to yourself.”
For one day in March, thousands of female protestors, from pop stars to domestic help, minority faiths and transgender women, streamed onto those very streets to take part in the Aurat March, the largest protest of its kind in Pakistan. The march encapsulated their anger over a range of injustices, from honor killings and sexual abuse to the absence of equality in the workplace.
Women in skinny jeans stood side by side with women in niqabs, holding placards with eye- catching statements such as “keep your dick pics to yourself” and “My body is not your battleground.” “It was the one day women could claim back the public space to express themselves and feel a part of something, the one day women didn’t care what society thought,” says Leena Ghani, one of the march’s organizers.
Tensions were already running high in the run-up to the march following a number of high profile cases. At the time, Pakistan was having its own #MeToo moment: model Meesha Shafi had accused a pop star, Ali Zafar, of sexual harassment; and social media starlet Qandeel Baloch had…
