Aurat March has set up a performance art piece at their protests each year which highlights their central demand which is to create an equal space for both men and women in Pakistan.
This year, the feminist movement revealed that a gaze tunnel titled “Chalien Auraton Ki Chaal” was installed at the march for men to pass through, in order to make them experience the kind of fear and claustrophobia women undergo when they are harassed on the streets.
The March elaborated on the significance behind this art installation in a post:
“The tunnel piece is an exercise in empathy, in conveying our gendered experiences of walking down the streets, in market places, through office doors. Ask any gender minority what they feel when they are in public spaces: each one of us will have many stories of harassment, of discomfort, of instances where the streets didn’t feel like ours. The art piece plays soundbites of our day-to-day public interactions. Aurat March is ultimately about reclaiming public spaces, of never settling for chaar-dewaris, but rather stretching ourselves more fully within and outside our homes. That demands introspection from men of them way they occupy public spaces. We hope this piece helps in that.”
Another art installation ‘In Ko Viral Karo’ was also at display on the protest which featured pictures of Youtube bloggers along with the misogynist comments they made about participants.
The movement addressed the significance behind this installation in the post:
“The coverage of Aurat March we see on Youtube is far from reality. These Youtube ‘journalists’ sensationalized, misrepresented and harassed participants from Aurat March last year. We present direct quotes from their ‘coverage'”.
