Despite our hollow claims and the false perceptions of our being a civilized and pious nation, vices and crimes against women and children in the shape of domestic violence, sexual abuse, harassment, blackmailing, and slaughter of women and rape continue to occur at a greater pace than ever before in history. On the one hand, we boast of our centuries-old civilization and adherence to a great religion, but on the other hand, all print, electronic and social media are filled with such horrifying reports from across the country.
Hardly a day goes by without hearing of them. Each passing day brings a horrific story on the surface which leaves every conscious and thoughtful person shocked. Whether it’s the murder of Qurutulain of Hyderabad or the slaughter of Noor Mukadam or the rape of Zainab of Kasur. If one is to state incidents of that nature, the list will go on endlessly. Moreover, one thing is obviously clear that the victims of such incidents are often women, young girls and minor children. Although boys also fell prey to those abhorring acts, the number of women and girls is far greater.
This reveals that something is seriously wrong in our societal values as well as our attitudes and this merits careful thought and some soul-searching. In spite of constant attempts by conscious people at teaching people morality such cases happen unabated. Besides, what is more disturbing is that people voluntarily tasked with giving lessons of morality, mullahs, are perpetrators in most cases as madrassahs are refuges for them. And this has been confirmed by the videos of mullahs, such as that of Mufti Aziz ur Rehman, which have gone viral. The video generated wide-spread condemnation as the so-called Mufti could be seen sexually assaulting a minor boy.
The space for women is shrinking. Men need to change their behaviour towards them. It is time their male counterparts at home learnt to listen to them. They should be made to feel comfortable sharing with their men if they face any kind of harassment, blackmail or abuse either at work or at the hands of relatives and extended family, for in most cases the perpetrators are their acquaintances. If women cannot express themselves, these cases would grow. When listening to them becomes normal, only then can we expect to see a decrease in such cases. After all, women are also part of our society
Since our efforts have almost failed to act as a deterrent to these crimes, it is high time we had a thorough introspection as well as appraisal of our attitude towards them. We need to understand that unless we change our mindset, nothing can halt the occurrence of the cases of sexual violence, as well as physical violence, on the ‘weaker sex’ and little children.
Our general outlook on rape incidents needs revisiting and soul-searching, for our political and executive top brass are oftentimes seen mouthing irresponsible remarks, such as that women are responsible for immortality and are sexually attacked because of wearing revealing clothes. Even the prime minister of the country once could be heard in an interview saying: “If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they are robots. It’s just common sense”, on which he had to do an explanation as it attracted widespread condemnation and outrage.
Illogical statements on the part of high-ups such as these, do nothing but reveal the way the victims are looked at. Besides, many of us would be aware of the remarks made by the DPO Lahore about the Lahore Motorway incident in which a woman was raped in the dead of night in front of her children when she was seeking help as her car had broken down. Instead of apologising to the victim, he inappropriately and rhetorically questioned why the victim was travelling at night.
What people making such remarks forget is that even animals are being sexually assaulted and gang-raped, let alone women. For instance, there emerged a report from OKara which stated that a gang of five youngsters raped a goat to death. What is it in animals that lures perpetrators into attacking them? And should animals also wear ‘modest clothes’ in order to avoid sexual attacks?
As put in by a Pakistani actress, the issue is not with women’s clothing; it is rather ingrained in our minds, which need to be changed. Because in most cases, the victims are either little, in their infancy, or in a veil. And in some cases, the sufferer are gangraped which is facilitated by their immediate relatives; or in some cases forced into prostitution. The murder of Qurutulain is a case in point. Such victim blaming is not a solution to this deep ingrained problem. It is a proven fact that women’s clothes do not attract perpetrators.
The space for women is shrinking. Men need to change their behaviour towards them. It is time their male counterparts at home learnt to listen to them. They should be made to feel comfortable sharing with their men if they face any kind of harassment, blackmail or abuse either at work or at the hands of relatives and extended family, for in most cases the perpetrators are their acquaintances. If women cannot express themselves, these cases would grow. When listening to them becomes normal, only then can we expect to see a decrease in such cases. After all, women are also part of our society.
