THE March
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the stark inequalities in our society.
Oppressions were amplified. Domestic violence ran rampant. The spectre of death and ill-health loomed over us all. Globally, we found the heart of society to
be diseased. Diseased with injustice and inequality, with patriarchy and violence on gendered bodies, with vast class inequalities and capitalism, and with the dehumanisation of races and ethnicities. Our collective body was in pain.
Women everywhere experience the pandemic of patriarchy. Our bodies are crushed under the weight of unpaid labour. Patriarchy is a ravaging illness, killing women every day. It is a femicide. The sickness of oppressive gender norms is slowly suffocating us. It is a violence. Keeping us scared in our homes, workplaces and motorways. This illness is systemic, it is structural, and our state is complicit.
In light of the cruelties wrecked on gendered bodies over the past year, the theme for this year’s Aurat March Lahore is women’s health. This issue is massively ignored at both an individual and structural level.