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My only question to the Pak PM is, how do we decide what is obscene and what is not? Has it been proven in some kind of specific research?
Trigger alert: This has themes of rape and victim blaming, and may be triggering to survivors.
Translated from the original in Hindi by Sandhya Renukamba.
Recently the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan organized a two-hour long question-answer session with the public. In this, a caller posed two questions:
~ What steps has the government taken to stop rape and child abuse, and are you satisfied with them? ~ Since you are talking about a Madine ki Sarkaar, why does the government not publicly hang rapists?
The Prime Minister, of course, avoided answering this question directly.
Rape has always existed in our society, but people did not talk about it before due to embarrassment, but now, more people are talking about it. In fact, even 1% of crimes against children and women are not reported in newspapers in Pakistan.
The Prime Minister said, “I want to say that just as corruption does not disappear by enacting laws, the same happens with rape cases. We have made the law on rape and child abuse very strict, but society should joint hands in combating it. Society has to decide that this crime is (equal) to the destruction of the society. ”
I absolutely agree with this view of Prime Minister Imran Khan. But from what he said further, it seems clear that our fight against Victim Blaming is prolonged.
Imran Khan further linked the growing cases of rape and sexual exploitation to “obscenity”.
So how does anyone decide what is obscene and what is not? And how is this the only reason for rape? Has this been proven by doing some kind of special research? This is nothing but victim blaming, and letting the real perpetrators off the hook.
He further said, “If you behave in an obscene manner, it will have some effect on our society. Not everyone has the willpower to resist temptation. That is why segregation system and veiling is so important. ”
So are the layers of clothing on the woman’s body enough to stop rape? NO!
If men do not have control, then of course, shouldn’t some kind of rehabilitation therapy be started for those who are so badly affected that they resort to violence? Instead of placing women under lock and key or inside veils, men should be educated.
Imran Khan further said that nowadays the divorce rate “has increased to more than 70 percent due to obscenity in that society.”
I think it is not wrong to increase the divorce rate; in fact, it is better than staying chained in an coercive relationship. That is why instead of expressing concern over the cases of divorce, we should express concern over the real issues. Like rape.
It is absolutely true that rape is everyone’s problem and the law is not enough, and we all should fight this together. But stop putting the blame on the wrong heads and hushing up those voicing their views on an important issue.
Image source: dawn.com, AFP/ File
A strong feminist who believes in the art of weaving words. When she finds the time, she argues with patriarchal people. Her day completes with her me-time journaling and is incomplete without writing 1000 read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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