The 8th of March is the ‘International Women’s Day’ and is a day to recognize women as the strong individuals they are, and it is also a day to raise awareness on what we can do to make the world a more equal place. On this occasion, a lot of Pakistani celebrities have taken to social media to send across their messages.
Among those people is Meesha Shafi, who tweeted about the importance of today’s ‘Aurat March’.
I march so our daughters don’t have to be silent and scared to speak the truth and claim their rights! #InternationalWomensDay #WhyIMarch #AuratMarch #HumAurtein
— MEESHA SHAFI (@itsmeeshashafi) March 7, 2019
Last year Meesha Shafi became the flagbearer of women’s rights and the #MeToo movement in Pakistan after she went public with her allegations against Ali Zafar. The singer still faces a lot of online hate to this day, but it’s not like that deters her.
Since most of us know what trolls say to Meesha, I’m going to skip those replies and get to the point.
One Twitter user replied to Meesha’s tweet with this image.
— SALMAN (@Salman62005347) March 7, 2019
Meesha Shafi took this tweet in particular and asked her followers to discuss the claims being made in it.
Discuss 🙄 https://t.co/QCuoOOLUXJ
— MEESHA SHAFI (@itsmeeshashafi) March 7, 2019
The comments under this post weren’t as I had expected. I had anticipated trolls to have descended on this, shredding it to pieces, but what I found was that there was a very healthy discussion happening under the photo.
Discuss 🙄 https://t.co/QCuoOOLUXJ
— MEESHA SHAFI (@itsmeeshashafi) March 7, 2019
Ooh, controversial. Far be it from me to challenge the word of Hazrat Fatima (R.A), buuuut I think we need to redefine shyness here. For example, suffering in silence under abuse is not shyness, is it? I believe this quote has more to do with the concept of modesty and all. Idk.
— Tim Apple™ (@MahatmaaGanji) March 7, 2019
The original quote uses the word ‘haya’ and is in relation to modesty or even in terms of having a conscience that helps you determine right from wrong. Has nothing to do w suffering abuse in silence/not questioning men in power etc and whatever else men try to define it as today
— Mishkat Zaki (@MishkatZaki) March 7, 2019
Discussing this seems like a sure fire way of getting angry mullahs onto me so I’m gonna pass 😅
— amal (@pakistanned) March 7, 2019
That shyness be well kept if though in veil or not. Men are the last creatures to have a right to sat that. Shyness is to be observed and not shown.
— dark and lovely. 🍒 (@blastfemous) March 7, 2019
It’s great to see women openly interact, question and debate posts like this, and also leading the discussion on the matter. In an age where there is such a large mass of information on the internet, we forget to question the validity and accuracy of things, and this is especially dangerous if people use religion or religious figures as a way to further their arguments. It is this culture of questioning and debate that will help us move forward and clear our heads of some of the ideas that are currently holding us back.
