Daily Times

Pakistan is a land of diversities with many lifestyles, customs and traditions stemming from the ancient agrarian roots of this land, which have remained integral in forming a human psyche that cannot escape the notion of honour deeply internalised in our societal thought. This stringent traditional honour is the result of the material dominance and prestige associated with it, which weighs heavily on interlinking women with honour through their sheer objectification. In our brainwashed, subliminal minds, women are not considered individual persons. Women are the ones made to be bear the brunt of exploitation and suffering, and are denied their right to consent. The motive for the objectification of women is to keep property within the family or exchange them in marriage, like cattle, to settle their material disputes. Any attempt to uncover the ugly designs against women are obstructed and silenced in lieu of protecting the ‘honour’ of the concerned family.
Inhibited values demeaning the position of women seems to trickle down in society, which internalises misogynist attitudes, something even the most liberal among the lot are not fully able to escape. The impact becomes double-edged when we witness the complete handicap of a sense of justice: of equality and equitable rights on the whole. In a situation that blames the victim and justifies the acts of the perpetrators, even to the extent of romanticising them, it makes for a doomed nation where the aggressor remains scot-free and the afflicted remain at the mercy of their masters, sans confrontation.
Liberties of consent for women are determined by class structure, especially when it comes to matters of love and sexual freedom, though many women sadly keep it concealed for fear of punishment and social embarrassment. Patriarchal values can be blamed for such victimisation of women. This can be seen by how the once matriarchal society of the ‘red light’ community of Heera Mandi in Lahore has been taken over by middlemen who use their might to take control of women and exploit them. Worse, these exploited women cannot approach the gates of the courts for redress of their grievances of rape and money exploitation for if they do so, they can be indicted under the Hudood laws. They remain helpless, weak and without protection in a business that is considered illegal. Nor are they allowed to leave this tradition at will because of heavy intimidation from their dealers and lack of their rehabilitation into mainstream society.
The mention of rape in Pakistan is considered a taboo that needs to be hushed up. Besides a prominent religious and political leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) telling women on live television that they should keep their mouths shut about their rape, conspiracies to keep rape a silent act are there to protect patriarchy. Misogyny continues to manifest itself by keeping the vulnerable in control and also to threaten with horrific consequences all those who try to defy what are considered to be social ‘norms’ and ‘cultural values’. Some politicians and influentials, even those who portray themselves as adherents of modern values, protect vehemently the traditional misogynistic mindset and are diehard proponents of keeping women away from decision making roles.
There are specific status quos that are arbitrarily protected by the state to keep the crimes of the powerful unpunished. The recent scandal of the Kasur child abuse case shows how politicians and the powerful have tried to hush up the matter by linking it to a land dispute and how the villagers were intimidated and threatened against speaking up on the issue. If we go back to 2005, a similar case was recorded in Azad Kashmir when three army personnel were accused by the villagers of the rape of a minor girl but the villagers were coerced by the military to take their complaint back, the whole matter was silenced and no news could surface in Pakistan, despite the fact that it got reported by the BBC. If the mystery over why the voices of the relatives of the minor girl were hushed up raises suspicion and doubts over the validity of this incident, then the crimes of the army in 1971 where thousands of women were raped cannot be cornered. To this day, those rape victims are still denied justice due to a pact Bangladesh signed with Pakistan to keep Pakistan’s military out of international courts. With the unaccountable status given to the powerful, the same has historically transcended into all levels of society, where the authoritative feed on the agony of the weak to satiate their lust for power.
Submission to injustice means victory of the oppressors: victory of protecting their status quo and those who benefit directly through such endorsements. An indoctrination of such submission to systematic aggression under the excuse of religion, culture or the tribal justice system should be deemed criminal. However, there is some hope as people are becoming more democratically aware of the issues that directly concern them but it needs some time to reach the level of maturity needed to curb such attitudes that have subconsciously harmed women. At present, those differing in terms of beliefs, gender or sexual orientations are criticised, publicly humiliated, socially ostracised and even murdered. Though misogyny in a patriarchal society is starkly obvious, it goes away without much intrigue as it has been heavily entrenched as part of our society. It is like a love struck wonder: you cannot see the flaw in love unless you come out of it. This is our Stockholm syndrome.

The writer is a freelance columnist and may be contacted at zeeba.hashmi@gmail.com