On the occasion of International Women’s Day activities, ‘We Can Campaign’ organised a public awareness event here on Wednesday in federal capital on in collaboration with Torciare Pakistan. A large number of volunteer students from different schools, colleges and universities distributed pamphlets, brochures, and flyers among the general public to raise awareness about different aspects of violence against women. The interactive communication material distributed by the campaign volunteers was aimed at engaging and educating the public regarding various aspects of social, cultural, and structural violence prevalent in the society.
The creatively designed brochures contained an image of a woman whose hands were physically tied with a ribbon and people had to untie the ribbon to open the brochure. The ribbon symbolised the prevalent violence and discrimination against women and the act of untying the ribbon by individuals meant that everyone was supposed to contribute towards making the society a safe a just place for women. Apart from distributing the communication material, the volunteer students directly interacted with public to make them aware of the social approval and cultural condonation granted to different violent practices which deprive women of their basic human rights. The initiative of the campaign was appreciated by general public.
Commenting on the activities of campaign, Hajera Pasha, the national coordinator of the We Can Campaign, said the campaign engaged the Pakistani society on two levels: individual and institutional. On an individual level, the campaign mobilises and rallies ordinary women and men who commit not to tolerate or perpetuate any kind of violence against women under any circumstances. The campaign calls these individuals change makers. On an institutional level, the campaign will continue to engage and collaborate with different state institutions, the civil society, non-governmental organisations, and educational institutions to highlight different social aspects of violence against women. Muhammad Aashir, the campaign officer, said the campaign was fully cognizant of the fact that bringing about a paradigm shift in the attitudes of a society towards violence against women would be very difficult unless the social, political, and economic costs of the structural and culturally institutionalised violence against women were highlighted.
