Women Ride Bicycles To Reclaim Public Spaces in Pakistan
On April 1, 2018, a bicycle rally was organized in major cities of Pakistan by prominent Pakistani feminist collective Girls at Dhabas. The ‘Girls On Bikes’ Rally was their third annual event to promote female participation in public events, fight restrictions faced by women in public places, and increase awareness about issues faced by women.
In May 2015, two Karachi-based girls, Sadia Khatri and Natasha Ansari, started using the hashtag #GirlsAtDhabas as a space to curate photos of women on Tumblr. The hashtag went viral when hundreds of women across South Asia began sharing photos of themselves at dhabas (roadside cafes) on Twitter and Tumblr, launching a conversation about safe spaces for women. After this, the collective was born.
On the event page from this year's bike rally, Girls At Dhabas mentioned:
"Through this annual event, we aim to challenge the existing mindset that it is inappropriate for a female or a gender non-conforming person to be out and about on her own."
Several women were seen rallying on the streets of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad with slogans against patriarchy and inequality.
Soon, people expressed their views with the hashtag #GirlsOnBikes, making it a trend on social media.
The rally also received criticism from some social media users who believe in defined gender roles and declared the rally a Western trend.
Pakistan is a patriarchal country where public spaces are not seen as a place for women. The stereotype that it is inappropriate for women to occupy public spaces is still a widely held belief in the country. However, as proven by the ‘Girl on Bikes’ rally, movements that demand the opportunity to occupy public spaces and also attain equal social, political, economic and reproductive rights are beginning to gain traction.
