hISTORY eNDS EVERYWHERE:

The reaction to Pakistan's first women's march was relatively mild: criticism and condemnation from Islamist parties and conservatives, who called the participants "antireligion" and "vulgar."

That did not deter the organizers of the 2018 march in Karachi, the significance of which reverberates to this day.

What started as a single demonstration to observe International Women's Day has become an annual lightning rod for religious conservatives across Pakistan, who have been adopting harsher attitudes toward female activists. Now, as women prepare to march Tuesday in Karachi and other cities, powerful figures in Pakistan want the event banned altogether.

Women planning to join the Aurat Marches, as they are called -- Urdu for "women's march" -- have faced countless threats of murder and rape, along with accusations that they receive Western funding as part of a plot to promote obscenity in Pakistan.

"The growing uneasiness surrounding Aurat March every year shows that the campaign for women's rights has been making an impact," said Sheema Kermani, one of the march's founders.

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