K-P assembly, Mazar e Quaid follow suite
The buildings of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkwa provincial assemblies in Lahore and Peshawar and the Mazar e Quaid in Karachi will be clad in an orange hue tomorrow, to mark the International Day to end Violence against Women
The initiative has been taken under the direction of the Federal Ministry for Human Rights, under the National Commission on Status of Women, along with the UN Women chapter in Pakistan and the international NGO White Ribbon, which is now operating in more than 70 cities of the country.
As part of the campaign, the next 16 days, from November 25 to December 10, will be marked with different activities all over Pakistan to mark and acknowledge the struggles that women have to go through in different situations.
November 25, is the and the 16 days after it are marked by the UN through their Orange the World campaign in which they light different monuments orange. Last year’s campaign had seen the Minar e Pakistan in Lahore lit orange.
This year was marked in Lahore with the lighting of the Punjab Assembly in a ceremony and adjoining events lead by the provincial Women Development Department Minister Hameeda Waheed-ud-Din. She also launched the “Her Talk 2017” as her contribution to the UN’s Orange the World campaign.
Students of the Lahore College for Women University also performed mime on the occasion at the Her Talk ceremony and the day was ended with the release of sky lanterns.
The campaign also took place in other parts of the country. An event was held in Federal Capital Islamabad as well as the lighting of buildings in KP and Sindh. In Balochistan as well, NGO White Ribbon was actively involved in spreading the campaign through Country Based Organisations (CBO).
White Ribbon officials told Pakistan Today that the UN campaign was also being followed by a Pledge for Action which the groups were urging men to take, in which they would take the onus for preventing violence against women by promising to never partake in, hide or ignore such actions.
Over all, the next 16 days are expected to be a ripe opportunity for increasing awareness and taking steps towards the recognition that steps need to be taken against gender based violence both in Pakistan and globally.