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Article published In:
Critical perspectives on gender, politics and violence
Edited by Eleonora Esposito
[Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 9:1] 2021
► pp. 21–46

Violence against women in politics

The case of Pakistani women’s activism

ORCID logo | Rutgers University, U.S.A.
This paper explores the protest claims of Pakistani women against the everyday oppression of traditional gender roles and the complex backlash they provoke as an instance of violence against women in politics. Taking the annual Aurat March (Women’s March) as a focal point, I analyze the provocative placards and slogans that have gone viral in both traditional and digital media and investigate the misogynistic counter attacks launched by conservatives, men’s rights advocates, and anti-feminists. Contesting narrow definitions of the political in mainstream research, I argue that Aurat March protesters and activists are women in politics and that counter-discourses, designed to delegitimize the protest and the women’s issues it represents, constitute a mode of discursive violence that should be included in scholarly and activist discussions of violence against women in politics.
Keywords: violence against women in politics, discursive violence, Aurat March , women in Pakistani politics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Violence against Pakistani women and Pakistani women in politics
  • 3.Multimodal critical discourse studies: Data and methods
  • 4.Analysis and discussion
    • 4.12018 Aurat March
    • 4.22019 Aurat March
    • 4.32020 Aurat March
  • 5.Understanding violence against women’s activism in Pakistan
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00052.ala
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