Mera Jism Meri Marzi

"But the chant ‘Mera Jism Meri Marzi‘ is important because of the vast injustices women in Pakistan and all around the world have to face at the hands of the patriarchy against their very own bodies. The message behind the slogan is important. Like a man, it is a woman’s right to choose whatever happens with her body. Whether she chooses to follow a certain religion or whether she chooses to walk around proudly without any clothes, it is her right to do as she wants and nobody else has a right to prevent her from exercising her choice."

"Men, women and even kids need to learn this important lesson about boundaries and consent. Just like we teach kids not to let strangers touch them or let even those they know well touch them inappropriately, women have a right to claim their own bodies and not be forced to do things that someone else wants them to."

"..When we say that people should have full bodily autonomy, that having bodily autonomy is a human right, we mean that people should have full control over their body and be able to freely make choices concerning their body (unless it means that your choice will cause public health concerns and outbreaks, making other people ill, such as within the case of refusing vaccinations)...Bodily autonomy is a human right, a concept that is applied not only to abortion, but also for ending human rights violations such as slavery, female genital mutilation, forced sterilization, sex trafficking, sexual assault, rape, to name some examples.....Your fight for bodily autonomy must be all-inclusive. If your fight for human rights are not universal, it is self serving and it allows unjust harm onto vulnerable and marginalized peoples. One should have full control over their body. Our body. Our choice..."

"...Trans persons should have the right to access legal and safe healthcare which includes medical procedures, surgeries, and hormones without discrimination. Folks who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and two-spirit should not be forced into conversion therapy and should have the right to engage in sexual relationships without violations towards their bodily autonomy...."

"'..My fans love the fact that everything I’m doing is my choice. It’s my body. I want what I do to be memorable and so do my fans – I’m just living, just being.’"

"“My Body My Choice” His Body My choice. His life My choice. His money My choice. His freedom My choice. His mannerisms My choice. His family My Choice. His decisions My Choice – Stop these double standards and then say this is a patriarchal society."

"Mera jism, meri marzi literally means that womxn want bodily autonomy and have the right to make decisions concerning their bodies"

"Justice is a day where I can confidently say, “My sexuality, my decision. My body, my choice.”"

"I have been trolled a lot of times for my size, make-up, clothes, hair, for my low cleavage. ..... Sometimes I gain or lose weight, so they have a problem with that too. There are times when they don't like my clothes or dance, so they comment on that too. I want to tell these faceless people it is my body, my choice I will do what I feel is right. I have earned it,"

"“....My body, my choice, my life, my … Free yourself from people’s judgement, feel liberated, live with a kind heart & love yourself, or change till you do… For when you truly love yourself, you can truly love someone other than you...""

"I have poetry on my body and the idea is my body is mine to use and abuse,.....It's mine. It's not God's or anybody else's. It's mine. I'm a writer and I see myself as a canvas, as a space where I can write as well,"

"My body, my choice! has long been the rallying cry of the abortion movement. In recent years, advocates made a more concerted effort to substantiate the sound bite by pushing a philosophical argument for abortion they called the “bodily autonomy” (or bodily “integrity”) argument. ... The argument goes like this: The highest moral good is to have autonomy over one’s own body. This autonomy includes the right to kill the body of a preborn child attached to and reliant on my body. Therefore, abortion is moral."

"It's My life, my choice and my responsibility"

"Still my body is not determined by my limitations. Rather I create my body through my choices and my actions, in this I have created myself.My entire lived experience determines my body. My choice...,my habits...result in what I may call at any moment - for that time - by body. My body is mutable chargeable living substance. It is continuous with my mind, which is no less subject to temporal change, mutability, growth, and decay, and no less a product of my exercise of choice and free will."

"The right to control and make decisions about our own bodies is fundamental to women's freedom. Seems simple right? Logically 'My body my choice' should be met with "Her body her choice." But far too often it's not. Instead "My body my choice" is often is met with a resounding wall of "not really your body, not really your choice." And yes this makes steam comes out of my ears. My ears are in my body, by the way. There is good reason for this steam; A woman's right to access to birth control, abortion, and reproductive health care has all been increasingly under attack in the past several years."

"...The lack of autonomy is a cruelty thrust on them by a society that has decided their value is in their biology, not their minds...To have a soul is to be human, to have bodily autonomy is to exist freely."

"One Instagram user "..“My body is not mine, but rather Allah’s..”."

"Another Instagram user "...“Don’t we need to ensure that we live in a world where your/God’s body is respected?..""

"The public debate that 'Aurat March' has triggered is groundbreaking, Men, for centuries, believed they owned women's bodies, so a placard asserting a woman's right to her own body is not going down well with them."

"..Had you replied, "I had or have no regrets for being a porn star. I entertained you just like any other star on the big or small screen....I'm proud that I didn't have to use anyone else's body to hike the TRP or to hit the box office."..." I wonder how the next 18 minutes of the air time would've been covered! , I was not at all surprised by his "around the bush? approach. I would've admired him had he interrogated you straight by giving the anti-porn feminist rap about "commoditization or objectification of female body; how it's a systemized degradation, and how it leads to proliferation of sexual violence etc.? Since he isn't smart enough to drop names beyond Aamir Khan, you could've quoted scholars like Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon whose crusade has been to regulate if not eradicate pornography. There upon throwing 's name who asserts that pornography benefits women both personally and politically, you could've asked, "If we as feminists believe in "my body, my choice?, why cannot pornography within the regulatory limits be my Sunny, this is a classic duel between individual freedom and social control. The present day hash-tags about intolerance erupt from this very conflict. Where do you draw the line between "allowed? and "offensive?? Who draws that line? Who gives them that right to override your personal liberty?"

"....The only concern you will be sharing with them is when the participation in such activities is coerced and non-consensual. When participants are under duress or are incapable of giving their consent (as in case of mentally or physically challenged or intoxicated persons), forcing them is wrong in every sense. Our dispute arises against their omnipotent audacity to claim that the consenting women are so damaged and exploited by the patriarchy that their consent is neither voluntary nor free. If my consent for my adult acts is alleged to be notional, why won't you call a wife's freedom offered by the institution of marriage an illusion? Is a married woman devoid of the patriarchal cultural dictate? Isn't she expected to present her sexy avatar to her divine husband and to surrender? Is it not objectification? When you are reacting to my actions on the screen, don't you think that I AM the owner of my own body? Can you think so about your wife when you are imposing yourself on her? Irony is that a wife's conduct has to conform to the approved text of patriarchy. Sunny, you are free of all this hypocrisy. Don't believe in the accusation of married women that you corrupt their husbands as was alleged by the interviewer. He conveniently hide the statistics showing the percentage of female surfers of the porn sites."

"I had an abortion. I just simply wasn’t in a place, financially or emotionally to take that on. I was and still am glad I had that choice because that’s exactly what it was, it was my choice, my body."

""...Who do you know that has ever said, “I’m going to get really drunk and then drive around on public roads?”; Who do you know that has ever said, “I’m going to go out in public, but I refuse to wear a face mask?”"

"My daughter occasionally goes on a hugging and kissing strike....No, she doesn't have to....She doesn't have to hug or kiss anyone just because I say so, not even me. I will not override my own child's currently strong instincts to back off from touching someone who she chooses not to touch...I figure her body is actually hers, not mine....It doesn't belong to her parents, uncles and aunts, school teachers or soccer coach. While she must treat people with respect, she doesn't have to offer physical affection to please them. And the earlier she learns ownership of herself and responsibility for her body, the better for her."

"...Men, it’s time to stop body-shaming women. It’s time to tune into your what’s driving your comments and how they impact women’s opinions of themselves and one another. It’s time to support your wives, friends and daughters to see themselves beyond their body....My body is mine. Hers is hers. Yours is yours...My size, and the size of any woman’s body, is none of your business..."

"[Talking to friend Veronica, Anita Blake worries she may be pregnant.] Ronnie: I could ask, who's the father, but that's just creepy. If you are, then it's this little tiny, microscopic lump of cells. It's not a baby. It's not a person, not yet. Anita: We'll have to disagree on that one. Ronnie: You're pro-choice. Anita: Yep, I am, but I also believe that abortion is taking a life. I agree women have the right to choose, but I also think that it's still taking a life. Ronnie: That's like saying you're pro-choice and pro-life. You can't be both. Anita: I'm pro-choice because I've never been a fourteen-year-old incest victim pregnant by her father, or a woman who's going to die if the pregnancy continues, or a rape victim, or even a teenager who made a mistake. I want women to have choices, but I also believe that it's a life, especially once it's big enough to live outside the womb."

"Samuel smiled at me. "Freedom and fairness are very important to you, aren't they?" I nodded, and frowned. "They're important to everybody." He laughed. "Oh, no, Anita, you would be amazed at the number of people who try to give away their freedom at every opportunity. They much prefer that someone else make their decisions.""

"Translation:"

"There’s nothing to be ashamed on your body.I don’t understand why always more & more women get bullied just because of their body. :w:Rabi Pirzada done nothing wrong. Its her life. It’s her choice. Shame on those whose cursing her. #IAmRabiPirzada #Nobodyshame #WestandwithRabi,"

"You have to be a special kind of pervert or worse, deeply privilleged and entitled to assume that #MeraJismMeriMarzi is about asking for sex. Also, women are not responsible for how you interpret placards. The burden is yours to educate yourself."

"It's stupid to have this conversation. Everyone has the right to their lives and to look the way they want to! Tomorrow I can put on 25 kilos... it's my choice, my body! She's at home taking care of her baby."

""Beta (daughter in law), now if I tell you that you should also know how to cook a little, you will start with this new ‘My Choice’ thing. I went to the club yesterday and all my friends were saying that their daughters-in-law have recorded this video and play it at full volume. They were showing it to me; Hai Bhagwan, all these big words, ‘I am a snowflake, you are dandruff, I make brain freeze, you make head itch’. Beta I want to ask you, is this all you girls think about? Sex before, sex after, when do you find time to work or look after your children?”"

"“Mummy, at the very least it makes people think about women and their choices. What choices did you have when you were younger? You had to stay at home, then get married, have kids and by the time you were forty, life was at a standstill; at least women can try different things now.”"

"Why is #MeraJismMeriMarzi considered so offensive? Because the control of women’s bodies is the bedrock of our patriarchal system. If a woman refuses this & asserts that her body is her own, it shakes the foundations of patriarchy. Sugarcoat it how you like; this is the truth!"

"#MeraJismMeriMarzi means opposing:"

"Will say it louder now. Will carry more placards that say the same. Mera jism, meri marzi. Mera jism meri marzi. Don't touch me, don't make decisions for my body, don't police it, don't stare it, don't rape or abuse it. Mera jism, meri marzi."

"'Uh oh. Some of us mums are being chastised for pumping. No one bats an eyelid prepping their own breakfast, why choose to get flustered over my baby having his? Boobs were designed to feed....'How funny that some fat, cells and glands could so deeply offend so many. Being a mum is hard enough. ..... Seemingly, everyone knows how to raise YOUR baby except you.....'If you feed with formula, you're supposedly the devil, if you breastfeed, you're offending those that don't or can't and worse yet, the patriarchy won't be able to control themselves...stop titillating the men folk!'....'My body, my baby, my choice. ...my miracle baby. It's a part of our bond. I love, LOVE doing it for him....The photos of other women breastfeeding, pumping, normalise things for me and if mine, in turn, do the same for other mothers who feel embarrassed, judged or that they should need to stifle their baby under a Muslin lest they offend some wallflower with their life giving, breastfeeding skills, I'll continue posting....these mums deserve support and respect, not critique...'"

"“...When I say Mera Jism Meri Marzi, I don’t mean I want strip my clothes off and run around naked!...I mean to say that I am a human and this is my body, so it is up to me whether I allow you to stare at it or touch it, or not. It means that I can report you if you don’t comply. It means that I can take an action against you if you harass me because you have no right over MY body...”"

"It means that it is my body and no one can violate it, abuse it, harass it, grope it, or do anything with it without my consent."

"...the 14th amendment of the U. S. Constitution grants all citizens bodily autonomy, which is the right to be the master of your own body..."

""The girls own their bodies. I totally agree that my daughter and granddaughter own their bodies,....When you own something, like property don’t you get a consultant to help you?”"

"Finally, what I have said about the dog s obedience applies"

""...The body being the instrument of the free-will of the"

"“...When you’re exposed to someone who is unvaccinated, that takes away your personal freedom....You’re infringing on other people’s choice...”"

"...I definitely believe that everyone has the right to be able to make the choices that they want to make for their own lives..."

"Don't understand the problem so many are having with #MeraJismMeriMarzi"-Mera jism meri marzi nahi toh kis ki marzi ho gi?? "My body is mine" is a critical component of the Life Skills Based Education classes we teach to help children protect themselves from abuse & harassment"

"Will scream #MeraJismMeriMarzi till I can’t scream anymore because millions of women in this country are subjected to pregnancies they had NO input in. None. Our bodies are not incubators"

"Your Body Is a Bioweapon...People using "my body, my choice" to protest coronavirus safety guidelines are putting everyone in danger..."

"It's just the latest instance of people co-opting the abortion rights rallying cry as if it's a clever "gotcha"—that it's somehow hypocritical to support both people's right to choose to have a medical procedure and also requirements that protect public health, like wearing face coverings during a pandemic....Anti-vaxxers have famously weaponized the language of choice in an attempt to prove their case that refusing vaccination is simply exercising their right to control their bodies...But choosing not to wear a mask or not to stay home is extremely unlike the choice to have abortion—"my body, my choice" can neither be applied to vaccinations or emergency orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Abortion is entirely a personal decision that—and this is key—doesn't affect the health of your neighbor, or your grocery store clerk, or your bus driver. Abortion is not a public health issue, while measles and coronavirus absolutely are. Your body, in other words, is a disease vector...."

"‘Mera jism, meri marzi’ means ‘nobody touch us without our consent’ and there is nothing wrong about it(slogan)."