Being a woman in Pakistan is no walk in the park
https://arab.news/b6346
In August 2018, in a public park in Pakistan’s pretty capital city Islamabad, two Capital Authority Department employees sexually assaulted and raped a young woman in broad daylight. The victim filed the complaint at a police station. The culprits were arrested, a suo moto was taken, they confessed to their crimes, the case went to the Supreme Court and then no one remembers what became of it.
Five years later, on January 31, 2023, several armed men raped a woman in the same park, and then advised her not to be seen outside after sunset, handing her a Rs.1,000 ($3.70) note. This is the face of entitlement and impunity. The men who abused her were 100% sure they would remain unharmed, and with a 3% conviction rate, they are not wrong.
Interestingly, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) imposed a blanket ban on the coverage of the rape case by local media and so, we will not know what will become of it.
Institutional loopholes near-guarantee impunity. What is equally traumatic is the discourse around sexual abuse, like the popular belief that women ‘ask for it,’ that they invite sexual violence by putting themselves out there. The discourse around moral policing states that the responsibility of the abuse lies with the victim and safety lies in ‘preventative measures’ that should have been taken by the victim. There is no other way around it, according to this narrative. Boys will be boys, you see. They will rape and plunder if given the chance. That is what they do.
Institutional loopholes near-guarantee impunity. What is equally traumatic is the discourse around sexual abuse, like the popular belief that women ‘ask for it,’ that they invite sexual violence by putting themselves out there.
Farwa Naqvi
Society expects this to be a tacit agreement. Reactions that question and scrutinize the victim, ensure the impunity of the rapist. No one bats an eye in the direction of the abusers or the security failures of the state-- just the victim remains in focus.
South Asia has a shame-based society in many ways, and abusers employ victim-blaming as a tool to blackmail their victims and to get them not to speak up, especially, children.
Victim-blaming is a reliable method employed here and around the world to defend perpetrators and protect abusers, as it alludes that the victim of the persecution ‘deserved’ it. “She did that. Consequently, this happened.”
In patriarchal societies like Pakistan, women are assumed to be objects and possessions, with men given the power to make decisions for them. Men are brought up to hold that belief and women are raised to objectify themselves. Hence, the country is raised to be de-sensitized towards women’s humanness and plight. Children observing victim-blaming, insensitively and generationally, may be potential abusers.
Sexual violence is a manifestation of the patriarchal system. Sexual abuse is a power crime. Anyone who’s not a powerful patriarch will be subjected to violence as a power show and putting in place, be it a woman, a transgender, a child, or a less powerful man.
Victim blaming and rape apologist narratives are manifestations of inherent sexism and are the protectors, breeders, nurturers, and encouragers of rape culture.
After abuse, victim blaming is the act of planting the flag of the patriarchy by patriarchal agents, declaring that once again, the patriarchy has prevailed.
- Farwa Naqvi is a London School of Economics and Political Sciences (University of London) degree-holder and a CPCAB– UK qualified integrative mental health counselor & psychotherapist. Twitter @farwanaqvi_
