Increasing rape cases: Is Pakistan safe for women?

The increasing number of rape cases across the country has triggered a debate about why there is a precipitous increase in sexual assault and rape.

On Thursday, the police have arrested one of the three suspects booked for the alleged rape of an 18-year-old woman on the M-4 motorway near Gojra city in Punjab’s Toba Tek Singh district.

The incident has come as a grim reminder of last year’s Lahore-Sialkot motorway gang-rape case. The concern is when will this gender-based violence end in Pakistan and why it is increasing?

Toba Tek Singh incident

According to the first-information report (FIR), the victim’s maternal aunt told police that her niece had received a message on her mobile phone, asking to reach a location in Gojra at 2:30pm on Monday to interview for a job at a boutique.

The complainant said that when she and her niece reached the location, the suspects asked her to send the victim with them to Faisalabad for the interview.

She said she let her niece travel with them and the two male suspects raped the victim twice, holding her at gunpoint, on the M4 motorway while on their way to Faisalabad. The suspects later left the teenage girl at a deserted place near the Faisalabad Interchange and fled.

Fallacious arguments

In a patriarchal society like Pakistan, victim-blaming is frequently used to tell women that they should remain within the walls of their homes to prevent rape, sexual assault or harassment committed against them.

Most Pakistani women have found themselves on the receiving end of the inherent double standard stemming from such convoluted logic; where the safety is entirely in women’s own hands and where the girls must ensure that their bodies are covered.

Another fallacious argument is that the so-called westernization and exposure to obscene content on the internet and television are responsible for a sharp rise in sexual crimes. As if denying access to these platforms will eradicate sexual crimes in our society.

Remove such misconceptions

These misconceptions will continue to be peddled unless we understand that sexual crimes are not about sex and lust alone. Research by psychologists and sociologists have shown that sexual crimes are all about power. Perpetrators of these crimes involve in such crimes to assert their so-called male authority.

If we continue to blame victims and lay the responsibility of sexual crimes on the door of so-called obscenity and vulgarity, it will only increase such crimes. Sexual crimes like rape affect the victim, but the whole family goes through the trauma, and most of the time, this trauma is transmitted to the next generations.

Lack of awareness

Lack of awareness seems to be the main hindrance towards ameliorating the problem since sex education is often avoided, especially for minors. Furthermore, many are also unaware of the legal procedures to follow.

It is about time that special action is given to rape victims. Media campaigns regarding women’s rights and sex education need to be initiated in order to educate parents in teaching their young children how to protect themselves.

It is also important to introduce a separate topic regarding gender studies at the primary and secondary levels. Parents need to talk about gender-related issues with their children in order to ease their curiosity in an educated manner.