User:Rriiyyaazz/GirlsAtDhabas

Girls At Dhabas is a Pakistani feminist movement that started in 2015 in Karachi, Pakistan by a group of young women  which aims at reconstructing how women access public space that are socially dominated by men. The movement caught fire through an Instagram post by Sadia Khatri with the hashtag #GirlsatDhabas, which went viral among Pakistani women. It has been picked up by other feminist groups and movements around India and other South Asian countries.

Origin
Girls at Dhabas aims to recover public spaces for women which are popularly dominated by men in the society. These places include 'dhabas' which are eateries along the roadside or tea stalls located in localities where women do not usually frequent. Sadia Khatri, the founder, photographed herself at a dhaba and then uploaded the image on the Internet on April 24th 2015. She was later joined by Sabahat Zakariya, a friend with whose help they started an official blog on Tumblr and an official Facebook page.

The thought behind the movement was to encourage women to increase their presence in public spaces and end the tradition of being accompanied by men in such places. According to Khatri, dhabas, other than being public spaces, “represent a break of sorts from the daily grind. … The act of taking the selfie or photograph is important, too, because it implies ownership of position and place. Women are frequently told to stay out of, or remain invisible in, public spaces—there is a moment of reclamation in there. The dhaba is just one site where women are outsiders. There are many others, and, depending on one’s specific identities, the dynamics change with every change of space,” says Khatri. “So we essentially encourage people to send in photos, stories, and narratives of experiences that defy gender norms in different real-world spaces.”

The movement started of on Instagram with a single photograph of Sadia Khatri at a dhaba which gained popularity and other photographs with the same hashtag emerged on the social site. The Tumblr page was then created to bring in more ideas and photographs of women that were being posted on other social networking sites. There are around ten women who manage the page, plan events and activities across cities such as Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi.

Activities
In march 2016, The Girls at Dhabas organised a Bike rally in Lahore and Karachi, in support of Aneeqa Ali, a bike rider who was harassed by a group of men on the streets of Lahore few weeks prior to the event. The rally witnessed girls on the streets of the respective city on their bicycles with banners claiming the equal right of men and women on the roads of the city. In Karachi, The Girls at Dabhas group was joined by the Critcal Mass group, a biking group, whose member Aneeqa Ali was. In Lahore, there were about fifty girls including members of Girls at Dhabas and other volunteers who were part of the rally.

The members of Girls at Dhabas are also trying to expand the movement by building a non-profit venture called 'The Dhaba for Women' which was scheduled to open by April 2016 in Karachi. They plan to hire women from lower socioeconomic classes and build this venture through crowd sourcing.It will also have a community centre attached to it from where activities and meetings will take place.

International Momentum
The Tumblr and Facebook page of the movement gained momentum rapidly just weeks after the first post. By September 2016, their Tumblr page gained around 3000 followers in a span of five months. The followers were women from different South Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh. The blog also witnesses posts and poems written by young girls from Pakistan and neighboring countries.

“Every day I meet more women organizing something amazing across the border,” Khatri says. “I didn’t expect this to be a result of Girls at Dhabas at all – but the number of relationships we are making with feminists across the border is honestly incredible and such a relief. We realize we’re not alone – and that it’s a growing space – but the fact that we are able to grow it in collaboration with women from other countries, that holds incredible power.”

Major Collaboration
After the hashtag #GirlsAtDhabas received a lot of attention, a Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) professor advised Khatri to read a book called, Why Loiter? by  Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade. Intrigued by the group’s work Shilpa Phadke contacted them on Facebook to draw up some cross-border collaborations. The book had a great impact on Khatri and her friends. The collaboration confirmed the movement’s ability to move beyond the borders. Their collaboration led to annual #whyloiter events in various Indian cities and in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad in Pakistan between December 16- December 31 in 2015. Loitering Sundays were organized in Pakistan where women stepped out of their homes and hung out in the public spaces without hurry and anxiety.

Criticism
Girls at Dhabas has witnessed several forms of criticism.

The movement has been subjected to criticism for its use of English as its language of communication. Groups argue that when the movement aims at enabling a wide range of women to reclaim public spaces and increase their presence in male- dominated spaces, the use of a foreign language such as English might hamper the growth of the movement. They also argue that English users in Pakistan are restricted to a higher class of educated women, thus making the movement elitist.

Also the use of online sources such as Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram has been criticized on the argument that use of a platform that requires digital knowledge will lead to the movement being spread among a certain type of women and will not be accessible to lower-class women.

In response to the criticism Khatri responds that, “yes, public space might be marked by class, but it is perhaps marked more by gender. A lower class man can access public space freely, though he might face other kinds of discrimination that an upper class woman does not have to. Also, the team running Girls at Dhabas comes from all backgrounds, professions and educations. There are more of us behind the scene than people might realize.".