Hyderabad: Presidential Award holder human rights activist and leader of women wing of Pakistan Democratic Party (PDP) Vero Kolhi has asked why the organizers of the recent women march were uneasy when they mentioned the issue of illegal detention of noted Pakistani woman scientist and mother Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
Addressing a press conference here at the Hyderabad Press Club (HPC) on Tuesday, she said that they went from Hyderabad to Karachi to raise the women rights issue of Dr Aafia but the organizers of the Aurat march and police guarding them misbehaved with them. She asked why these women marchers were not ready to consider the illegal detention of Aafia, her kidnapping along with her minor children, their human trafficking abroad, her illegal trial and shifting to the US and mockingly long jail sentence handed to her without proving any charge. She asked is this all not a violation of human rights, women rights and mothers’ rights of a Pakistani female citizen, Aafia.
She said that it seemed that this women march had no intention of taking the real issues of distressed mothers like Aafia but this march was solely arranged to toe a NGO-sponsored agenda to support free sex, target religion, and mock and defame our social traditions and values. She said as the paymasters of this March organizers had no sympathy with the genuine issues of Pakistani women, they were irked by even hearing the name of Aafia Siddiqui.
However, PDP Hyderabad chapter president Arshid Arain said that like the previous regimes the sitting PTI government of Imran Khan has no courage to talk to the US administration on the issue of Dr Aafia and demand her release and repatriation.
Vero Kolhi said that she belongs to Hindu religion but her heart beats with the heart of Aafia, who was shamelessly ignored and forgotten by the Aurat March organizers. She said this appalling and biased attitude of our so-called liberal and progressive women have hung our heads in shame, as they have no courage and spine to talk or hear about the human rights of Aafia as a woman and as a mother.
She said Aafia is perhaps the only woman of the world whose basic human rights are not recognized on the occasion of international women’s day.
Vero said despite her ill health she travelled from Hyderabad to Karachi to raise the issue of Aafia Siddiqui in the Aurat March, but the march organizers, police and administration rudely misbehaved with them and did not allow them to join the march only because they were supporting Aafia, and supporting the cause of Aafia was not on the agenda of the NGOs and their paymasters who staged this so-called Aurat March.
She asked are we living in the country of Modi where talking about the rights of a Muslim woman is a taboo. She asked which rights of women were supported by the Aurat march when they lacked courage and compassion even to talk about the plights of a Pakistani woman, Dr Aafia Siddiqui. She asked the organizers of Aurat March and their paymasters if Aafia is not a woman and not a Pakistani.
However, Vero Kolhi and Arshid Arian thanked some individual participants of the Aurat March, who greeted them, waived at them and expressed solidarity by raising slogans along with Vero Kolhi. They said seeing these heroic individual march participants heartened them that there are supporters of Aafia in every walk of life.
However, Vero Kolhi once again appealed to the PTI government of Imran Khan to honor their electoral promises and ensure release and repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui on top priority.