ABSTRACT
Mera Jism, Meri Marzi was simultaneously the most critical and the most controversial slogan at Aurat March, Pakistan, 2018. Literally translated as ‘my body, my choice,’ this slogan, rather unsurprisingly, became the paradoxical focal point that encapsulated the sexual safety crisis, invocations of #MeToo feminist goals, and cultural anxieties around sexual politics in Pakistan. Despite the ephemeral nature of most provocative slogans in the age of social media, Mera Jism, Meri Marzi has sustained its semantic role as a signpost for the contemporary feminist politics in Pakistan. To explore how and why this slogan became the epicentre of the struggle for women’s rights to sexual consent, physical safety, and sexual autonomy, this chapter traces the gendered intersections of culture and religion to highlight how this slogan served as a multipronged intervention for the contemporary crises of sexual violence against women in Pakistan. Approaching Mera Jism, Meri Marzi as the semantic site of feminist struggles for sexual safety and autonomy, this chapter analyses these unintentional provocations of masculine sentiments, religiopolitical confusion, and patriarchal sexual anxieties to discuss how this slogan opened a sustained space for dialogue and sexual safety in Pakistan.
