Because of what happened on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway, Pakistan is in a state of shock. Apparently the police are hunting the culprits. But the aren’t police culprits themselves? The statement made by the Lahore CCPO, Omar Sheikh, is not a statement issued by an individual or a department. It mirrors the views of an entire state machinery. His statement also reflects the mindset of society’s ideologues.
Take the Maulvis into account, for instance. For the past two days, some social media users are sharing an interview of Munawar Hassan, the former Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami, advising women to remain silent if they are raped. Maulana Tariq Jameel, on the other hand, has zipped his tongue. He is only good at portraying flashy images of the Hooris in the heavens, or accusing women dressed in jeans as the only cause of natural calamities.
It is possible that this recent tragedy was condemned by a certain Maulvi Sahib (not to my knowledge) but did they ever stage a procession on the daily incidents of rape against children in madrassas or to protest against rape culture? On the contrary, there are video clips circulating in which a pious Maulvi Sahib is discussing the issue of whether it is permissible for wives to breast-feed their husbands? In a viral clip, Allama Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer reminds that it is permitted to enslave (for sex) non-Muslim women. He also advocates that banning the marriage of underage girls will endanger Islam. The message in every Maulvi’s sermon is that a woman should not leave the house. However, no Maulvi talks about the issue that if the peasant women stay at home, then will the famines in the country be dealt with by the rulers of Saudi Arabia or the Iranian Ayatollahs? Or will Maulana Tariq Jameel perform a miracle?
One should fear a day when these clerics might issue a fatwa that the rapist can also flog the woman as an ‘Islamic’ punishment for leaving the house.
The same is true of the spineless and shameless media. Anti-woman characters like Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar are reminding us day in day out through TV serials, morning shows and talk shows that the real place of a woman is her home. The media keeps conveying the message ad nauseum: A (westernized) woman who leaves her home falls prey to dreadful incidents. However, if she still leaves her home, then whatever good or bad happens, she is responsible for it and not the state or society. If women take to the streets chanting “My body, my will”, then place them in same category as of Kulbhushan Yadav.
The courts take out the fraction of the oppression that remains. I read somewhere these days that only 4% of rapists are convicted. These courts can send an elected Prime Minister to the gallows, but they cannot send the rapist to jail because neither the CCPO is with the woman, nor the honourable judge.
As for the state, if it gets some space from crying over internal security and repayment of foreign loans, only then it might pay some attention to the protection of children and women and spend something. Just a few days ago, it was reported that there are a total of 650 women cops in Lahore. Had only two hundred billion been spent every year on the protection of children and women in addition to the protection of borders, CCPO Umer Sheihk would not have to advise the women not to travel by the GT Road instead of the Motorway.
Similarly, the motorway would not have been unsafe if the state had promoted gender equality, peace and humanity instead of glorifying the passion for martyrdom among the youth. If March 8 had been celebrated with the same vigor with which September 6 is celebrated, this country would not have become a Rapistan.
(Translated from Urdu by Ali Sulehria. This essay first appeared in daily Jeddojehad ).
