by MARIYA KARIMJEE
The country’s feminist movement, Aurat March, is used to backlash. This year was different.
On March 9, the day after Pakistan’s annual Women’s Day protest this year, Saima received a concerned message from an acquaintance about a video making the rounds on Twitter. Saima instantly recognized the video; it was from an event she helped organize. It showed women chanting slogans as a tabla played in the background. The audio had been lowered, the drum’s sound increased, making it hard to understand what the women were saying. The post was overlayed with false subtitles that made it seem like instead of chanting the feminist slogans the women had chanted in real life, they were chanting slogans against the Prophet Muhammad — a crime punishable by death in Pakistan.
“[When] I logged on, it had only 10 views,” Saima said, “and I began reporting it [to Twitter] and started working to make sure the real video” — the one where the women were chanting feminist slogans — “was also able to get out there.”
Saima, who asked to change her name for her safety in the country, helped organize Aurat March (Women’s March), which has been held on International Women’s Day in Pakistan every year since 2018. (Rest of World spoke with three other marchers and organizers, who all requested anonymity for their safety.)Though it began in the country’s largest cities, since last year, the protests — run by an inclusive collective that campaigns for the rights of women, LGBTQ people, and minorities across Pakistan — have grown larger. With its increased popularity, the march has also seen an increase in backlash. This year, however, the backlash has taken on a far more sinister tone.
In the days after the event, a coordinated disinformation campaign against the organizers quickly spread on social media on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp. In Lahore, a woman’s poster that alleged a member of the clergy had sexually assaulted her was labeled as blasphemous. A picture of someone holding a flag for a local feminist group was shared with false information that it was a French flag, further “proof” that the feminist movement is foreign-funded. And in Karachi, attacks centered around the altered video of chanting protesters alleged the women said “Prophet Muhammad will give us freedom,” a dangerous claim in Pakistan, where even a suggestion of blasphemy can incite mob violence.
False information about the marchers was picked up by Pakistani journalists with major platforms, like TV hosts Orya Maqbool Jan, Ansar Abbasi, and Ovais Mangalwala, many of whom have a long history of disparaging the Women’s Day event. Even the Pakistani Taliban, a group that has largely receded after the war on terror but remains influential in parts of the country, released a statement condemning Aurat March and its organizers, warning them that their behavior wouldn’t be tolerated.
It’s unclear where the fake videos came from, but the Twitter campaign that spread the false images and videos appears to be coordinated. In the past several years, large-scale troll armies have employed Twitter to wage propaganda against India, to target vulnerable religious minorities in Pakistan, and to intimidate, endanger, and abuse journalists and activists who step out of line.
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