A very wise lady once said, “As women, we must stand up for ourselves. As women, we must stand up for each other. As women, we must stand up for justice for all.”
Within each minority rests their strongest subgroup, and for the Shia, one can say women are the strongest subgroup. While being a minority within a minority, women have the power to elicit change through their encouragement and voice.
In Pakistan, the Muslim women have come together in protest of the ever-growing Shia casualties. They have stormed the streets in peaceful protest in cities of Islamabad, Nawabshar, Khairpur, Nasirabad, Matli, Sukkur, Sujuwal, Hyderabad, Karachi, and most recently Gilgit-Balistan, expressing their demands of safety.
Terror organizations such as LeJ and SeS have targeted Shia Muslims all over Pakistan, and with growing corruption and anti-Shia sentiment, many ant-Shia crimes go unpunished. Thus, Shia mothers and wives are left with uncertainty that their sons or husbands will never return home from a day’s work. To that, the women of Pakistan have taken it upon themselves to create change- they have become the change they want to see in the world.
The Muslim women of Pakistan serve as a symbol of advocacy and a beacon of hope for the global Shia community.