It is common for Pakistani women to be blamed for the assaults they had ever faced. The country has been literally plagued by episodes of rape and child abuse over the recent years, however, in the end, nobody but only victims are treated as criminals or blamed for the assaults.
Something similar happened a day earlier when renowned anchor Imran Riaz Khan blamed Noor Mukadam, a girl who was allegedly murdered last month by her acquaintance Zahir Jaffer, for being murdered.
This immediately sparked outrage among several people who condemned his statement in this regard. The doubt still remains the same that rather than focussing on the real issue, when will Pakistanis stop blaming the victim?
The Noor Mukadam case
27-year-old Noor Mukadam was the daughter of former Pakistani diplomat Shaukat Mukadam. She was found murdered at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20. Police said she was slaughtered after being shot at.
A first information report (FIR) was registered later the same day against Jaffer, who was arrested from the site of the murder, under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s father.
Mukadam, who identified his daughter’s body, has sought the maximum punishment under the law against Zahir for allegedly murdering his daughter.
Imran Khan’s blame game
A video clip of anchor Imran Khan has been making rounds on social media, in which he can be seen drawing parallels between Noor Mukadam’s murder and her lack of telephonic conversation with her father.
According to him, the Noor Mukadam case which is being fought in the court has many drawbacks. He also criticised the deceased for talking to Zahir more rather than her father in the last six months.
Things got worse when Khan maligned Noor Mukadam’s character and criticised her for having an affair with Zahir Jaffer.
Reaction to Khan’s remarks
The comments made by Imran Khan in no time sparked outrage among social media users and several people termed his ‘victim-blaming’ utterly disgusting.
One of the users called the journalist’s statement ‘sick’, ‘disgusting’, and ‘vile’ and called out that such a man does not deserve a platform of any kind.
Another user wrote that he is shocked at Imran Khan’s ‘views’ on why Zahir Jaffer murdered Noor Muqadam. “This vile man has no right to call himself a journalist and honestly,” he believed.
One user believed that Pakistanis as a nation can go to any extent to prove that man murdering a woman is ‘right’.
Culture of victim-blaming
The culture of victim-blaming is not new in Pakistan. The idea of men simply not expecting to control their lower desires in the presence of women has been normalised in society.
Remember the motorway rape incident? ‘Why was she out on the Motorway so late without a brother or husband? And if she had to travel why didn’t she take the more public GT Road route?’; these were the exact words uttered by Lahore Capital Chief Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh in response to the gang rape of a woman, who was sexually assaulted in front of her children by two men on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway.
Coming back to Imran Khan’s statement in which he justified Noor’s murder because illicit relations often end up like Noor then what about Quratulain, who was murdered by her own husband?
A young woman named Quratulain was not only a wife but a mother of four young children who was brutally killed by her own husband. Her relation with the murderer was not illegal at all. Then why was she tortured for straight several hours and died of injuries?
It is a painful truth that Pakistan has completely failed to protect its women and journalist like Imran Khan make it more worse by justifying why women are subjected to such assaults.
