Daily Times

Oppression, inequality, honour killings, rapes, wani, and the list is long of the grievances which women have faced at every corner of the world.

No religion except Islam has honoured status of the woman to such prestige and regard. Women all across the globe have been unsafe and different waves of the feminism are proof of it. What to say of the Western world, the reports and surveys have confirmed that Women in Islamic Countries have continuously been the victims of rapes, honour killings, wani, and what not. Pakistan, being no exception, an Islamic republic is also in the list.

The current development in the feminist culture of the country took over the prime time where some feminists displayed the unreal meaning of feminism giving exposure to vulgarity and filth. Having this said, it shouldn’t be misinterpreted that feminism means undermining men, it, actually, means women and men are equal in every course of action, either in the public or private sphere. It has become a connotation that women, now, in Pakistan, are more vocal, empowered, and safe. But the recent incident on Lahore motorway, where a mother was gang-raped in front of her kids ran cold through the spine.

In a survey, it has been reported that every day an average of 1 of 3 women are raped across the globe and, in particular, every day, ten girls are raped in Pakistan. Unfortunately, it has not been confined to women alone; even the kids irrespective of their gender have been molested throughout the country; Kasur incident is the vivid example. Moreover, molestation in masjids, homes, streets, parks, and even in the graveyard is horrifying.

Where article 25 of Pakistan’s constitution clearly defines that all genders are to be treated equally, in Pakistan, the situation is unfortunate because of the patriarchal mindset. Men have been blatantly claiming women as their properties undermining them of their fundamental rights, victimising them to domestic violence, killing them in the name of the honour, gang-rapes, marital rapes, early marriages, and an unending list of inequality and violence.

A study on women rights has ranked Pakistan as the 6th most dangerous country for women in the world. Why it shouldn’t be, Pakistan has become a country where rapists are not caught or punished for their crime, but women are questioned for their attire, for their natural beauty, and for their outside movement which incites such men hungry of lust.

It is to question those conservative mindsets that a child of merely 4-6 years is raped, what sexual attraction does he/she show, a woman in abaya is harassed, and a woman even in the grave is molested; can someone answer to the question what sexual pleasing acts does a dead body do to such bastards?

Cases ranging from Zainab to Kasur cases, to Farishta, to Marwah, and now to the Lahore motorway incident. How many more souls to be victimised? The irresponsible statement by CCPO Lahore on the incident displayed the mentality of our male-dominated society, where a woman who had been a victim, instead of being consoled, was interrogated how dare does she go home at night, why not take this route, why didn’t she check her car before leaving?

This led to public outrage across the social media, and the campaign with #hangtherapists gained strength and momentum to all media forums, which eventually led CCPO Lahore to eat his own words. Moreover, when a debate initiated in the parliament on the topic, where our Honourable opposition leader audaciously said that the place where the incident took was, by the grace of Almighty, built under PMLn’s Tenure and when the bill was proposed to hang the rapists publically, the only opposing party was PPP. Doesn’t this depict that molesters and rapists have been roaming around fearlessly because of such statements and support by policymakers and implementers?

When a slogan “Mera jism meri marzi” was raised that meant that no man, even no soul, no matter what the relationship to a woman exists could even dare to touch a woman’s body. Unfortunately, the slogan here in Pakistan was misled, misdirected and misinterpreted by so-called feminists. As a result, many fragile egos got offended by the motto. Still, no one has ever questioned the jirga system that exists across the country where women are stripped naked forcefully, thrown acid, inked black on the face and are marched across the society under the alleged crime of infidelity. Why does our community fail to understand that mera jism meri marzi means that like men, women have right to independently move to any place they want to, choose who to marry, decide what to wear without being fearful of being raped? It means that even if you are my life partner, you can’t force me what to wear, or how to carry relation with you even. It means men are not allowed to pass comments like ” Ma Sha Allah, Subhan Allah” while passing by and it means no man can rape, sexually assault, harras, throw acid, pick me on, or subject me to domestic violence.

Honourable Prime Minister’s interview on a TV channel to chemically castrate such bastards is the need of the hour. These words should be taken to swift action. Our women deserve all their rights and might. They deserve to be ensured safe when they step out of the home. They should be fearless of such infidels and have the liberty to do things as men do. This is high time to end gender inequality and let women feel safe in their skin.

Moreover, our women need to be ensured safe and break the taboos and talk about such issues. Our state must recruit some well versed lady security officers who listen to grievances , our oppressed sisters have been facing. The women should be told some tactics to defend themselves and gnaw the faces of such lust seeking evil souls. They should not be judged rather empowered to raise voice against violence which is the only way to curb the rising insecurity in the female society of Pakistan!
Harrasment, violence and bullying is not acceptable at home, at workplace, nor in the street!
It is now or never!

(The writer is a freelance columnist & blogger who wants to bring change in the society. She teaches and works for youth development and women empowerment)