Online taxi platforms love to project themselves as pro-women initiatives intended to provide them with the security needed to step into the open. Sadly, for them and perfectly in line with society’s cavalier approach, a woman was raped inside her own house when her taxi ‘driver’ proceeded to burst his way in after he had ended the ride. Leaving the victim with unimaginable trauma for the rest of her life where she’ll be forced to relive the assault on her dignity, her worth as a human being and her standing in a misogynist society, the culprit must have been empowered by prevailing impunity associated with these crimes. In our part of the world, there appears no shortage of those lurking around the corner, on the perpetual lookout for victims. Only last year, a report had put the number at 11 every day. According to a report published on these pages, more than 40 cases of abduction and sexual violence against women were reported in a single district in Punjab in July. It is high time that rape in Pakistan is treated as an abuse of power, not a sexual deviance because only then the hideous advances of five-year-olds, women lying unconscious in hospitals or dead in their graves might make sense. Also, if flashy clothes and midnight adventures automatically make them tempting items on the menu, what about the prevailing number of boys in statistics compiled by the Saahil organisation? It is crucial to understand before raising placards for more legislation that Pakistan already has a well-calibrated (some may say, even more, progressive than the rest of the Muslim world) policy through radical amendments in the rape laws. Between abolishing the two-finger test, making the state complainants in cases where the original victim takes back complaints and constant investment in polyclinics, special hotlines and task forces, a lot has already happened. What is still a work in progress is how the society still views rape and treats its victims. *