Women marching for solidarity: 5 years of Aurat March in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that the Aurat March (Urdu: Woman March) in Pakistan has developed from a one-off event to a social movement that operates according to a populist logic as articulated by Ernesto Laclau (2018). I demonstrate how a diverse array of women’s demands is linked by a chain of equivalence to create solidarity between disparate communities of women. Here, all protestors define themselves in opposition to a common enemy, the patriarchy, allowing for a wide array of marginalized ethnic, religious and gender identities to be subsumed under the Aurat March banner. The slogan mera jism meri marzi (Urdu: my body, my choice) acts as a signifier that becomes increasingly empty, allowing a variety of demands to be projected upon it. I analyze conservative discourses around the Aurat March to demonstrate how right-wing detractors attempt to fill the empty signifier with morally charged content that disrupts the solidaric bonds holding together the Aurat March coalition. Finally, I explain how Aurat March organizers attempt to restore the openness of their signifier and the solidarity at the heart of their movement.