London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
Existing research offers insights into how social movements are organized. However, there is need for deeper insights into how a social movement’s organization evolves over time considering the challenges and push-back it faces from the status quo. With news reports data on Aurat March from 2018 to 2024, a radical feminist movement in Pakistan, we explore the question of movement’s evolution by specifically exploring the question of the recognition and legitimacy, not just of the March but the marchers as well, and its resultant influence on pivot’s in Aurat March’s strategy. Findings reveal Aurat March’s critical role in bringing structural debates on gender to the fore. However, the push-back challenging legitimacy of the march and the associated misrecognition of the marchers has resulted in increased dependence on men, media and the state, which has affected the radicalness of the march’s ideas as well. We identify three processes through which the radicalness of the march seems to be getting affected: compromise on how radical the March and marchers can get, surrendering space to prove that Aurat March is inclusive of men as well, and, getting distracted by focusing on other issues and turning the demand for women’s rights one of the many in the long, and evolving, list of demands. We contribute by advancing the understanding about the relationship between social movements and gender relations.
