JUI-F threatens participants of Aurat March with 'violence'

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's right-wing political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam has warned of stopping the Aurat March on International Women's Day using ‘baton charge’.

Reports in local media said the president of JUI-F Islamabad Abdul Majeed Hazarvi has warned to stop the annual gathering of left-wing activists saying if any attempts are made for obscenity on March 8 in the country’s federal capital, we will stop it.

Hazarvi also mentioned that if the march was allowed, they will use batons to stop it. Obscenity is spread in the name of women’s rights, he maintained.

JUI-F's stance on Aurat March comes a day after Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying that anti-Islamic slogans should not be raised on International Women’s Day.

Qadri also suggested celebrating International Hijab Day instead of on March 8, in an effort to express solidarity with Muslim women across the globe.

Meanwhile, the human rights activists and journalists slammed the statement of the JUI-F leader calling for action against Hazarvi and their accomplices. Activists also referred to the 2020 incident when stones were tossed at protesters in Islamabad.

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The recent controversy is not the first one as JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman asked his party’s workers to stop the march back in 2020. “If anyone thinks they can come on roads under different banners and threaten our culture and Islamic values, they should know that we will also come out to stop them,” he mentioned while addressing a rally.

Last year, petitions were filed in courts, asking for a ban on the march. But these petitions were dismissed as courts remarked that the right to assemble peacefully was guaranteed as per the law.

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