New Delhi: A picture of 75-year-old human rights activist, Sheema Kermani, being detained by a group of female police officers outside the Karachi Press Club, went viral in Pakistan on Tuesday. Pakistanis are now blaming the state for shrinking space for civil liberties.
Kermani, often called Pakistan’s living legend for her four decades of activism, is seen staring defiantly as two women clad in black hijabs hold her with force, even as several others surround her. The kathak pioneer and rights activist was on her way to the Press Club to obtain an NOC for the upcoming Aurat March, an annual protest that aims to combat patriarchal violence. Seven others were also detained and later released.
The picture by Reuters photographer Akhtar Soomro has been dubbed ‘misogyny as rule’.
Aurat March will be held on 10 May. Unlike previous years, the organisation announced earlier that they would not march in Karachi, and instead carry out the campaign in Lahore “to respond to the pressing challenges facing us–imperialist wars, fascism, and rising inequality and also announced a plan to crown a ‘misogynist of the year’.”
‘Civic rights reduced to nothing’
Pakistani Human rights journalist Alifya Sohail pointed out facts, listing similar instances in the past.
“This was not the first time Sheema Kermani was assaulted by Sindh Police outside Karachi Press Club. Last year, she was attacked before an Aurat March Press Conference about the enforced disappearances of Baloch women. In January, she was physically prevented from attending a protest against Imaan and Hadi’s imprisonment. How many more viral clips of police brutality will it take to realize that this is standard policy?”, she wrote on X.
“Apparently going to the Karachi Press Club for a presser related to the Aurat March can get you arrested. Shameful”, Pakistani journalist Omar R Quraishi added.
Kermani, along with others, was later released on the orders of Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar, according to a Dawn report.
Abdullah Abbas, the executive director of Human Rights Council Baloch, added a warning: “The space for civic rights & social justice has already been reduced to nothing. Even Aurat March organizers are being barred from holding press conferences & are facing arrests. People must seriously reflect on what their country has become.”
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Four decades of activism
Others chose to reflect on Kermani’s legacy and what it had come down to.
Kermani started the feminist group Tehrik-e-Niswan in the 1970s, which has used cultural interventions to create a narrative on issues of women’s rights.
On 16 February 2022, the group performed dhamaal, a Sufi dance, at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sindh to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2017 suicide blast. Tehrik-e-Niswan started the Aurat March four years ago.
Kermani is famously remembered for defying General Zia-ul-Haq’s ban on sarees in the 1970s.
“A 73-year-old artist. Pulled out of her car. Manhandled by veiled policewomen. Outside the Karachi Press Club. For trying to hold a press conference. Kirmani performed dhamaal at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s shrine days after the 2017 bombing that killed 88 people. The state could not break her then. Today they tried to break her outside a press club for asking permission to march”, Pakistani writer Dan Qayyum added on X.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)