Pakistan's Women's March: Shaking Patriarchy 'To Its Core'

Thousands of women have marched across Pakistan's main urban centres to mark International Women's Day.

It is the third successive year that the Aurat March, women's march, has been held in the country.

The theme for this year's march was "Mera Jism, Meri Marzi" (My body, my choice), which according to the organisers' manifesto, is about demanding a society without exploitative patriarchal structures and control of economic resources, the right of women to make decisions about their own bodies, and ending harassment, forced religious conversions and the sexist portrayal of women in the media, among other things.

The marches were organised by a collective that includes Women's Action Forum, a women's rights organisation, Women's Democratic Front, a socialist-feminist organisation, and Hum Aurtein, a feminist group.

"The women who are emerging are shattering all those [patriarchal] ideas. They are just not going to take it any more. This is very unsettling for a lot of people," explained Ammar Rashid, president of the Punjab chapter of Awami Workers' Party, a left-wing political party that supported the marches.

"The thought of a women's march advocating women's rights shakes patriarchy to the very core."

- Read More: aljazeera.com