BY SABRINA TOPPA | vice.com
Photo by Saad Sarfraz Sheikh
“Women would be the worst-off if a war starts between two nuclear-armed nations,”
– Farooq Tariq, a Lahore-based political activist who helped organise the Global Standout for Peace in South Asia last week.
This year, women are taking a central stand against the region’s long history of conflict, militarism, and war, with both the Aurat March and Aurat Azadi March explicitly denouncing the creep towards war, and exhorting the nuclear-armed neighbours to issue a ceasefire in Kashmir. “We push for peace and against the war, the militarisation of our everyday lives, and a rhetoric of jingoism,” read a statement from Aurat March on Wednesday.