What is sadder than a society that convinces victims that they have called upon their own misfortune?
Victim blaming has become part of a toxic culture that has persisted in our society for way too long. This occurs when the victim of injustice is held partially or entirely at fault for the harm that’s inflicted on them.
Victim blaming stands in coherence with such juxtaposition how it is carried out by us humans despite evolution, is beyond all intellectuals or anyone that uses their brain every once in a while and a recent statement by one of the top cops in Lahore after a mother was gangraped in front of her children warrants the fact that even in today’s day and age some people in our society find it more convenient to place the blame on the woman.
210 499 186. Read that number again, those 9 digits represent the female population of Pakistan. We make 49.2 percent of Pakistan’s total population, yet that half is the subject of ridicule, harassment, shaming and assault on a daily basis.
A woman stepping out of the house is asked to be mindful of a billion things that may bring harm to her safety, to add to her misery she is asked to brace for impact by the society, because in case something were to happen,it’s the victim that gets questioned and the criminal walks free.
It’s the woman that loses her “izzat” and the man? Well no really one cares about him.
It’s not the woman that shouldn’t be driving alone with her kids, It’s the men that shouldn’t be left unsupervised.
What was she doing out at that hour, what was she wearing? Rarely anyone asks; Did he get caught? How could he? Does he not understand consent?Society is the criminal at hand for every rapist that walks free.Instead of drawing focus on the criminal and its punishment, people are quick to start questioning the state of the woman prior to being raped orharassed.
What they are oblivious to, is that aharassment victim in a veil laughs in the face of those who ask,“What was she wearing?” A 5-year-old victim laughs when she hears “Did she even resist, maybe she was asking for it”and a mother of 2 who felt safe to drive her kids laughs when theywonder “Why she ever thought Pakistan was safe for her and her kids”If these are the questions that society asks, maybe the society should question what the cat did to provoke the men that raped her.
Criminals don’t need a reason to attack, they just do. Nothing and we repeat nothing rationalizesor causes rape but the rapists. Not her sexuality, not her clothes, not her values and not her lifestyle.
We have been asking the wrong questions for far too long. We have been excusing the heinous side for way too long. If the criminals commit their crimes publicly, why should their sentence by executed privately. Stop questioning and shaming the victims. Start hanging the rapists.
