Just this week, we wrote about the heart-wrenching incident of sexual assault and harassment of a woman at Minar-e-Pakistan on August 14. As if this was not enough, two new videos surfaced yesterday — one in which a woman was forcefully kissed by a man when she was travelling on a Chingchi rickshaw on August 14.
The man jumped on the Chingchi while it was stuck on the road due to traffic and tried to kiss the woman and we heard another woman’s scream, who was sitting with her. Another video shows a mob trying to harass a woman at Minar-e-Pakistan and she is only saved because she keeps waving a stick to disperse them and keep them at bay.
When we say that the women of Pakistan feel unsafe, we hear that these are just odd incidents and should not be used to distort the image of Pakistan. What exactly is the image of Pakistan if women of the country are being harassed, assaulted, and attacked every single day, in multiple incidents? These are not odd incidents. These incidents and their aftermath depict the reality of Pakistan: women are blamed after each incident.
A TikToker gets sexually assaulted by hundreds of men for more than two and a half hours at Minar-e-Pakistan and no one helped her but she is blamed for going there for a meet and greet session with her fans. So, is a meet and greet session now forbidden for women in Pakistan, and does it warrant hundreds of men sexually assaulting a woman? When Noor Mukadam was beheaded, the women of Pakistan demanded justice. But there were those who started blaming a dead woman for being killed: ‘Why did she go there, why was she with a man alone, she had no family values.’ These were the disgusting comments being made to justify — JUSTIFY — a gruesome murder of an innocent woman.
When we hear such comments even after the most heinous crimes, it shows that Pakistan is no place for women. We do not respect our women. We do not like independent women. We dislike opinionated women. We justify crimes against women. We blame women for society’s ills.
Our leaders pass extremely violent and misogynistic comments against their women opponents and are still lauded instead of being reprimanded. When our top leader issues a rape apology, he is defended by women parliamentarians. When such is the attitude of the people on top, imagine what message it gives to the common people. They think they can do anything with women and get away with it. And they do get away in almost all cases.
This is our sad reality. Dear women of Pakistan, we are sorry. We have failed you.
