'The onus is on men,' Jemima hits back at ex-husband PM Imran Khan over rape remark

LONDON/KARACHI: British screenwriter and documentary producer Jemima Goldsmith on Wednesday called out her ex-husband, Prime Minister Imran Khan, for linking sexual abuse to vulgarity.

"The onus is on men," she wrote on Twitter, sharing a Daily Mail story headlined, 'Pakistan PM Imran Khan blames how women dress for rise in rape cases.'

Jemima, who doesn't mince words and has always been to the point, blasted her former spouse by citing a verse from the Holy Quran that orders men to "restrain their eyes" under the concept of pardah.

"Say to the believing men that they restrain their eyes and guard their private parts," she wrote on Twitter, citing the verse from Surah An-Nur.

In another tweet, Jemima lamented how her ex-husband seemed to have undergone a transformation in terms of his viewpoints, saying she still hoped that it was "a misquote/ mistranslation".

"The Imran I knew used to say, 'Put a veil on the man's eyes not on the woman'," she said.

'Sex, drugs and rock 'n roll'

Earlier this week, the Pakistani premier had linked "fahashi," or vulgarity, with the concerning rise in cases of sexual violence, including rape.

His comments came during a session wherein he was taking calls from the public when a citizen had asked what the PTI government planned to do in the light of rising incidents of sexual violence, especially against children.

PM Imran Khan had responded by shifting blame, saying there were some fights that governments and legislation alone could not win and that the society must join in the fight.

He had also reiterated his prior stance about his visit to the UK, saying the "sex, drugs and rock 'n roll" culture was taking off there during the '70s. Divorce rates "have gone up by as much as 70% due to vulgarity in that society", he had claimed.

Men 'cannot keep their willpower in check'

The whole concept of pardah, or covering up or modesty, in Islam, is to "keep temptation in check", the premier had said. There are many such people in society who "cannot keep their willpower in check" and that "it had to manifest itself in some way".

PM Imran Khan's comments this time around were not a surprise since in the past too, he has failed to address the root of the problem, calling for bans on apps like TikTok because he claimed they were harming society's values.

Last year, he had said that India's capital, New Delhi, had become the "rape capital of the world" due to the obscenity and indecent content shown in Bollywood films.

It was also under PM Imran Khan's government that Lahore's former top cop, Umar Sheikh, had blamed the survivor of the Lahore motorway gang-rape case for going through the route that she chose, saying she should have checked her petrol tank before getting on the said route.

The Lahore motorway gang-rape case had led to Pakistan-wide protests, calling for Khan's PTI-led government to step up and take proper action against the rampant sexual misconduct.