Several cities in Pakistan saw a sea of women coming together in solidarity and promoting the spirit of Women’s Day with the “Aurat March”.

Armed with witty posters and placards, they gathered in public spaces in major cities that included Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi, Islamabad and Hyderabad, declaring their resistance to patriarchal norms.

Reproductive rights, sexual harassment in the workplace, “honour killings” and child marriages were some of the issues highlighted by women in this year’s rallies, Al Jazeera reported.

The “Aurat March” was launched in 2018 in Karachi to provide just upper-class women but women from all sections of society with a platform to fight for their rights. The march is organised by “Hum Auratein” (We the Women), a women’s collective that conducts community outreach programmes.

“The basic purpose to put together the march was to demand and raise our voice for provision of fundamental rights to women, including economic, reproductive, security and environmental inequality and seeking an end to police and state brutality. These are the rights that the constitution of Pakistan promises, however they are still not accessible and exercised when it comes to women,” Nighat Dad, lawyer and co-organiser of the march, told The News International.