It was February 12, 1983. Around 400 women gathered at Regal Chowk Lahore to protest against the proposed Law of Evidence which equated the testimony of two women with that of one Muslim male in a court of law. At a call given by Pakistan Women Lawyers’ Association, WAF mobilised women belonging to different ages, classes, religions, sects and ethnicities to march to the Lahore High Court with a petition against the proposed law which would in effect reduce their citizenship status to half that of Muslim men.
It was one of a series of draconian laws passed since the military takeover of July1977, a period during which a facile Islamisation ideology was adopted to provide legitimacy to an illegal military regime.
On the cool February morning, hundreds of indignant and defiant women carrying placards, banners and flags chanted slogans against the oppressive regime, and waited anxiously to march to the halls of justice. The police cordoned off the area to prevent the advance of the crowd to the High Court. The legendary poet of the people, Habib Jalib, ever a fighter against dictatorship, arrived on the scene with a moving poem about the equality and rights of women. As he recited his poetry about women no longer willing to remain in chains, about women demanding freedom and equality, he was pounced upon by the police who began a sudden baton charge.
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