No place is safe

Pakistan’s scorecard on women would give nightmares to any sane person. The unfortunate story of the country’s 107 million women includes domestic and sexual violence, harassment, and glaring lack of equality in every sphere of life. Statistics and data, particularly in developing countries like Pakistan, often fail to capture the scale of gendered violence, abuse and harassment. Nevertheless, that most women will face some form of abuse or harassment at the workplace because of their gender remains an undeniable reality. The fact that so few of the perpetrators are ever brought to justice puts more women at risk, as does the support these men receive from their male colleagues and friends in a strictly patriarchal society.

The latest incident that highlights just how unsafe and violent workplaces can be involves the principal of an unregistered private school in Gulshan-e-Hadeed in Karachi who had allegedly exploited women by offering them work and then sexually assaulting them. The accused allegedly recorded the sexual assault and used the videos to blackmail the women. Reports in the media suggest that there are over 45 victims of the alleged perpetrator, and that authorities have found a total of 25 video clips on the suspect’s phone. An investigation was launched after someone alerted authorities to a video of the principal and one of his victims.

Perpetrators of similar crimes are often able to get off with a slap on the wrist or avoid punishment altogether. There is also the fact that many such crimes tend to go unreported in our society due to victim-blaming and an ineffective justice system. In this latest case, had a video of the abuse not surfaced on social media, the accused’s crimes might have remained under the radar of the authorities. The fact that so many women chose to remain silent and suffer such attacks is an indictment not just of the judicial and police systems but also of our society as whole. A school is supposed to be a safe space, for children and teachers alike. That these women suffered in silence instead of speaking out should put to shame all those who are quick to cry honour each time a woman dares to ask for her rights.

The tragedy of so many women in the country is that they are remembered only in the trauma they have had to face in a society that seldom sees rape and harassment survivors with any kind of empathy or sympathy. From a dictator implying that women make false rape allegations to get asylum abroad to a former prime minister saying that “men are not robots” when asked about growing cases of sexual violence, we are a society deeply populated by men who do not acknowledge that women’s safety should be a top priority. Women continue to get killed, raped, tortured and kidnapped, and even in death somehow manage to become the holders of their entire families' honour. What the Pakistani woman needs from the state and this society is thorough implementation of laws that will give them the right to safety, no matter where they choose to go, or how they choose to dress.