Daily Times

Ours is a deeply troubled society where women standing up to speak for themselves is still considered outlandish, a novelty, an unspoken taboo. Women face harsh criticism for having experienced instances of unwanted sexual advances, let alone being believed by their family members. The matter-of-course response is brushing the horrors under the rug with a resolve to never bring them up in front of anyone.

Ergo, a leading actress who must have crossed her breaking point when she decided enough had been enough, screenshotted vile offers from strangers and posted them on her social media account with a scathing message: Actresses are not Prostitutes. Small men with small minds and even smaller egos have made it a nauseating pastime to post hateful comments and sickening jokes at the expense of women. Something far more sinister happens in the seclusion of private messages where inappropriate offers have become the order of the day. Being exposed to an endless stream of contempt and objectification, a large majority of Pakistani women have to fight innumerable battles every day.

Explicit messages centring around details of personal life feed into a self-perpetuating cycle of harassment in cyberspace. While a few daring women have stepped into the ring, laced with screenshots and a determination to name and shame their wrongdoers, not all can afford to go down this road. The prevailing double standards that fixate on associating honour with female bodies would not hesitate before killing the same woman for the slightest of an excuse.

Unfounded allegations and even a mere whiff of contact with men (no matter how one-sided) are deemed sufficient for fathers, brothers, husbands and even sons to stone, club, burn or use the handy shot of a gun to reclaim honour. That any woman not following the societally-imposed vague ideals of morality does not automatically qualify for rape threats or lecherous insinuations is yet to be established. Now and then, women in the media issue joint statements against rampant abuse by those unable to stomach the shattering of the glass ceilings. Would their uproar ever reach the higher echelons, prompting the state to go beyond lip service in the implementation of cyber laws? *