A woman was assaulted by 400 men at Minar-e-Pakistan, a 30-year-old woman was raped and then stabbed in front of her 14-month-old son in Rawalpindi, Noor Mukaddam was brutally murdered in Islamabad, a mother of four was beaten to death in Hyderabad, a man and a woman were sexually assaulted and stripped on gunpoint in Islamabad, two brothers hit their sister and mother with helmet and hammer in Peshawar, a 22-year-old bride was gang-raped in front of her husband on her wedding night in Shujabad in Multan district, a man kept sleeping with his wife for days after killing her in Naseerabad, the gang-rape of a woman in front of her kids on the Gujranwala motorway, a father raped his eight-year-old daughter in Karachi are all the newspaper headlines that give us shivers. Women’s Peace and Security Index recently declared Pakistan the world’s fourth most dangerous country for women and that is strongly believed to negatively impact Pakistan’s global image and tourism industry.
In a country like Pakistan where women are striving for basic human rights such as the right to safety and the right to live peacefully, speaking up for other rights, such as the right to education and the right to equal economic opportunity, will merely be synonymous to making noise. It is extremely distressing to know that 93 percent of Pakistani women experience sexual violence, street harassment or a bad unwanted touch at some point in their life. However, it is because of the cultural barriers and communication gap between male and female members of a household that restricts women to rarely share their personal experience of harassment with the male members of the household. Lately, a Sindh MPA proposed to make marriage compulsory over 18 years through the Compulsory Marriage Act, 2021as a remedial measure to control sexual abuse. However, the behaviour of these 400 abusers (who were a mix of married and unmarried men) at Minar-e-Pakistan is a clear indication that for these men, a woman’s body is merely a public invitation for a lavish feast that they can hardly say no to.
The major contributing factor behind this rising sexual frustration in Pakistan is the lack of character. There are two main institutions that play a substantial role in building character: 1) strong accountability and; 2) education. When it comes to strong accountability, a total of 22,000 rape cases have been reported in Pakistan during last six years, out of which only 77 accused men have been convicted. This presents evidence of low probability (i.e. 0.3%) of rapists getting legal punishment under the Pakistan Penal Code. Consequently, the reporting rate of rape or harassment cases is also low. It is such an irony at institutional level that the predators are bailed or rescued and the fingers are pointed at victims instead.
Pakistan has been a country that has successfully minimized the number of terrorist attacks and street crimes in the last two decades by taking concrete actions at national and provincial level. Street crimes have also been put under control in different regions of the country. If Pakistan can fight against these crimes, making the environment safer for women is also not an impossible task. But for that, law enforcement authorities need to prioritize women’s safety.
In Pakistan, at least 10 rape cases are reported daily and this number is only 10 percent of the actual number of cases. The remaining 90 percent remain unreported. In our country, the victim experiences two major traumatizing phases: the physical abuse itself and death by murder in extreme cases or emotional trauma which is the consequence of victim blaming. In severe cases, the victims are either seen committing suicide because of the emotional trauma or they further become the victims of honour killing.
A recent survey revealed that majority of women in Lahore who seeks psychological help are those who find difficulty in dealing with the emotional trauma associated with their personal experience of sexual harassment or abuse. Even in this incident that took place at Minar-e-Pakistan, there are people who are blaming the victim instead of condemning the sexual greed and frustration these 400 men demonstrated.
Secondly, when it comes to the role of education in building character, either the education system of Pakistan has failed in building character or we as a nation have failed to let education change our mindset. The only difference between uneducated sexual abusers/harassers and educated ones is that the uneducated abusers are the ones who are observed involved in activities like street harassment, gang rape, paedophilia or domestic violence whereas, the educated ones are those behind workplace harassment.
The abuser of Noor Muqaddam is an example of the educated abuser who was devoid of basic human values. The social media reverberated with an uproar against this brutal conduct but a few weeks after this incident, the media only mentions this case as a tragic incident with no update being provided to the masses on the legal proceedings of the case.
Minar-e-Pakistan is a national monument built where the All- India Muslim League passed the Pakistan Resolution on 23 March 1940. That was the first official call for a separate independent Islamic state for the Muslims of British India where Muslims could practice their religion without any fear and where the lives of the people would be safe. However, 400 sexually desperate men assaulting a woman at the same patriotically consecrated place on such a patriotically meaningful day, Independence Day, not only molests the sanctity of Minar-e-Pakistan and assassinates the struggle behind Independence Day but also brings us embarrassment for not being able to become an exemplary state that was created in the name of Islam. Unfortunately, the country has become a state where the respect, body and life of women are continuously under threat.
Indeed, Pakistan is not only struggling with the covid-19 pandemic but also from a sexual abuse epidemic. Abuse and violence tracks women of the country not only outside their homes but inside their homes as well. The law enforcement authorities must put an end to abuse against women, be it domestic, sexual, public or private. It is time that a domestic violence bill is passed. It is time to punish rapists and harassers publicly.
Pakistan has been a country that has successfully minimized the number of terrorist attacks and street crimes in the last two decades by taking concrete actions at national and provincial level. Street crimes have also been put under control in different regions of the country. If Pakistan can fight against these crimes, making the environment safer for women is also not an impossible task. But for that, law enforcement authorities need to prioritize women’s safety.
