Leader of the religious outfit Tehreek Sirate Mustaqeem Dr. Ashraf Asif Jalali has angrily attacked a popular feminist slogan of the Aurat March, “Mera Jism Meri Marzi” (My Body, My Will), demanding that they leave Pakistan.
Addressing what appears to be an event titled 'Ghazi Mumtaz Hussain Qadri Conference', Jalali made blistering remarks against the women's movement and its demand for bodily autonomy for women. He described women who made such demands as 'laundiaan' and asked where they had come from.
Jalali reserved his fiercest criticism for the idea that Pakistan is for all and everyone should have the right to live as they saw fit. “So if you want to walk around without your clothes, will we let you walk like that?”
He went on to draw the attention of state institutions towards what he described as the 'indecency', 'vulgarity' and 'fornication' being promoted by the Aurat March, and insisted that his followers would not permit such things.
In opposition to the idea that Pakistan was made for all, Jalali expressed his opinion that the country was created for the Islamic expression of faith, the Kalima. He angrily remarked that the country would never be ruled by 'kanjars' – a derogatory term, originally referring to a caste of hereditary entertainers.
“Will you also say 'Mera Jism Meri Marzi' about the Coronavirus?” he asked the women's rights movement in remarks that are not fully understood yet. He continued in this vein, saying that such people had emerged from the “gutters of the West” and that they wanted to turn Pakistan into a “virus-stricken” country.