Daily Times

She stands in the middle of a crowded room, a microphone in her right hand, talking loudly, gesticulating at the uniformed Frontier Constabulary (FC) soldier, goading him to respond. With that image in mind, let me introduce you to the new era of journalism in Pakistan that runs only on one principle: in war, love and media, everything is fair. Jingoism is fair, obscenity is fair, tackling is fair, yelling is fair and rioting is fair. A challenge that she seems to have accepted.

Looking at the soldier though, you see a different picture: a face swept with anxiety. Despite her insinuations, he distances himself from her moving towards his colleagues in a corner without uttering a word. Everyone realises that he needs to be left alone; that any trigger may lead to a meltdown. Determined to boost her programme ratings, she does not realise that and grabs him by his arm yanking his sleeve. Out of a sudden, the solider turns around, swings the same arm all the way and slaps her on the face. Not expecting a severe blow like that, she falls down. Here, the video ends abruptly.

Later, the female journalist, Saima Kanwal, tells another television anchor that she just wanted to confirm if the uniform of the soldier was official or it was an imitation provided to guards by private security companies. How she would determine that? I am not sure. If questioned, I don’t think she would know the answer either. Anyway, during the interview she adds that moments before the clip the same soldier exhibited rude behaviour towards women, condescending, hurling abuses at them, pushing them away. And her attitude, although not ideal, emerged as a response to his aggression.

The video though ends abruptly, but it has sparked a series of discussions across the country; a war of words sprung on Twitter to determine who is to be blamed more, a battle ensued on Facebook to defend the violent soldier, and an argument erupted on WhatsApp to justify the unprofessionalism of the journalist. Needless to say, the debate also reached the dinner table, husbands passionately pointing at the irresponsible attitude of the anchor, wives even more so focusing on the cruelty of the soldier.

Honestly speaking, I need to condemn Saima Kanwal first for her actions, and then the entire media industry that has to be held responsible for promoting such behaviour, and creating an environment in which semi-educated, ill-trained journalists are encouraged to ignore all rules of professionalism for a short-term surge in programme ratings. Kanwal obviously succumbed to those pressures for which I do not think she should be allowed to work on television again.

Having said that, for me every debate ends when a man hits a woman, and it ends as abruptly as the clip. It does not start from there, no way, not in any civilised society. If we begin the debate after violence has been unleashed upon a woman then we are bound to find faults in her every single time. I can guarantee you that.

Stressing on the same point, in the West they say don’t blame the woman for getting raped because she is wearing a miniskirt. Wearing a short dress is not a crime, in Europe and America; the crime is to consider that short dress as an invitation to force yourself upon her. In Pakistan, it seems we say just the opposite: blame her for an inappropriate choice of clothes, her lack of consideration of societal norms, her sinful looks, her desire to draw attention. And after putting her down from every possible angle and humiliating her existence as a sex object, we always come to the same point: protect the violence of the man. How could he resist himself? He is made that way.

Among other arguments, I also hear that soldiers are trained to protect the sanctity of their uniforms, that any assault on the uniform is considered as an assault on the organisation, the institution they are sworn to protect. So if you grab his arm he would always do what he is trained to do: hit back with full force. In that regard, he just performed his duty, an action that he did not contemplate but instinctively executed.

My response to this bizarre explanation is that if a soldier can be taught to automatically protect the sanctity of the uniform why have we not taught our men to respect our women the same way? Why do some of us always find a problem in women as the ones responsible for bad/criminal actions of men? Why do men not go through the same level of scrutiny as women do for their actions? It is because we believe in the superiority of men over women, whether we admit it or not. We use religion, science, social sciences, economics, psychology, biology and philosophy to prove that point throughout our lives. The slap, therefore, on Saima Kanwal’s face by a uniformed guard is a slap on the face of the entire society that has lost its honour in providing a cover to its dishonourable men.

The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com