Daily Times

The video shows a young man, reportedly a tourist from Peshawar, filming a group of Kalash women in the Chitral district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The scenes make for uncomfortable viewing. Especially considering the women repeatedly ask him to stop rolling the camera, while covering their faces. Yet the man, who at one point even pretends to be a policeman as he urges the women to come closer to inspect his CNIC, unequivocally demonstrates his unwillingness to take “no” for an answer. He proceeds to hound the women. Quite literally.

The good news is that he is now in judicial lock-up. The harassment occurred back in 2015; with footage of the video being uploaded the following year. But it was only when it was shared once more on social media earlier this month that it went viral. And in a twist of poetic justice, women police officers were the ones who made the arrest.

The bad news is that Kalash women, belonging to Pakistan’s smallest ethno-religious minority and who are easily identifiable by their colourful dress, and those of other remote areas of the country continue to be treated as objects of cultural curiosity with no agency of their own. This holds true in the aforementioned case of blatant misogyny. The same may be said of the urban-based women’s groups from other provinces that send activists to remote areas to film women going about their daily routine. Not least because this renders the latter subservient to the voyeur’s gaze. A more pragmatic approach would surely be to teach women the ins-and-outs of video recording; thereby placing them at the centre of their own narrative.

Pakistan has great potential to attract tourists — both local and foreign. Nevertheless, central to any efforts to tap into this valuable resource must be respect of varying cultural norms. Thus it is imperative that the Tourism ministry take this matter seriously and draw up a comprehensive list of dos-and-don’ts. Towards this end, the incoming set-up ought to consider the setting up of hotlines at local tourist centres specifically aimed at handling complaints. After all, had it not been for social media — no one would have been any the wiser about the harassment of the Kalash women.

The time has come to stop treating women from minority communities as mere commodified souvenirs. We trust that the next government will do the needful.  *

Published in Daily Times, June 26^th 2018.