A veiled message: Pakistan women to show country’s #MeToo movement is still alive

Women who have been sexually abused will hold huge veils aloft on International Women’s Day in several protests across Pakistan to draw attention to the abuse they have suffered, reports Alia Waheed

Some of the messages detailing abuse painted by the women (Alia Waheed)

In a college playing field, a red gossamer veil with intricate gold embroidery has been carefully laid out on the grass. A young woman takes a paint brush hesitantly, then starts to daub it with paint.

The bleak words she writes are at odds with the delicate fabrics in vibrant monsoon colours which gleam in the sun. 

She is one of a group of students attending a workshop at a college in Lahore, Pakistan, for woman who have been sexually abused, in which they have been painting their #MeToo stories on to red veils.