This talk was held in collaboration with Mahbub-ul-Haq Research Centre (MHRC) as part of their esteemed Nigar-Ahmed-Rubina-Saigol series. We hosted Nighat Said Khan, a founding member of the Women Action Forum. Khan delved into the intricate history of the Women's Action Forum (WAF) and the evolving dialectic between WAF and the Aurat March (AM). 

The conversation journeyed back to 1981 with WAF’s inception. They began with only 14 members and grew to have 86 members by 1983. WAF was active during Zia’s dictatorship in Pakistan. Khan described how women were the linchpin of Zia’s policies with much effort being put into policing women’s clothing, restricting their access to public spaces, and passing laws that blatantly discriminated against them. Khan then journeys to the current feminist present and discussed the politics of AM. She shared how AM played a key role in emphasising how the personal is political and highlighted issues pertaining to sexuality and marriage, which WAF hadn’t previously picked up.