THE March
Aurat March Lahore and Women's Action Forum Lahore jointly marched on 12 February 2025 – to commemorate the National Women's Day of Pakistan.
We demanded that the State must urgently:
End the erasure of women, religious, ethnic, and gender minorities, as well as political dissidents, from public life. As a first step, we demand that people who resisted patriarchy and state oppression be honoured in our educational curricula, museums and archives, without sanitising their causes;
Effectively implement existing laws, such as the Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act, 2016, with a commitment to survivor-centric, restorative justice;
Ensure the constitution of independent sexual harassment inquiry committees in workplaces. Authorise the Ombudsperson to directly investigate in the absence of such mechanisms;
End forced conversions and forced marriages by criminalizing their practice and enacting comprehensive legislation that addresses the social, economic and political factors that perpetuate them;
Revise family laws for all religious minorities across the country to address outdated and regressive provisions, in consultation with the communities. Ensure that family courts are set up in Gilgit-Baltistan like the rest of the country;
End discrimination and violence against transgender, khawaja sira, and gender-diverse people. Strengthen and implement the Transgender Persons Protection Act, 2018, with the right to gender self-determination intact;
Guarantee the right to education for all girls, including those in confict-affected regions;