Word spread through Facebook and Twitter posts among the various networks of women involved in grassroots work - in education, health, microfinance, women's shelters, workers' rights. Goats and Soda If A Man Cooks For You, That's. There were actually three marches - in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad – all held on March 8, International Women's Day. This was the Aurat (Urdu for "women") March, the first of its kind in the conservative Muslim country of Pakistan. It was the first time in my life that I saw women gathering in public, in strength, in numbers. We were free to stand, walk, dance, with nobody to tell us to sit down, be quiet, be good. We did not care what the men thought of us. Men gaped, shook their heads, filmed us from passing cars as we walked by, disrupting traffic. We wore what we wanted to wear: burqas, jeans and designer shades, brightly embroidered skirts, the traditional tunic and baggy trousers called shalwar kameez. We raised our fists in the air, smiling, laughing. '" Aurat aiee, aurat aiee, tharki teri shaamath aiee!" (Women are here, harassers must fear!) We were hundreds of women, marching on the streets of Karachi, Pakistan. Pakistani women held a public march in Karachi to mark International Women's Day - and call for justice.
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