In a shocking turn of events, the ordeal of the Lahore-Sialkot motorway rape victim was described in all its anguish in a recent Pakistani drama, a journalist claimed on Monday.
Journalist Fereeha M Idrees revealed in a couple of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter that how Geo Tv allegedly making money off the extreme pain and trauma of a rape survivor.
The posts claim that the survivor unexpectedly called Fareeha. She had spoken to her after her terrifying adventure on the motorway a few years prior, but she wasn’t prepared for her call just now.
When the phone rang, I never expected this to be Z’s call. Z was the person whom I had spoken to a couple of years ago post her traumatic experience on motorway. Those were tumultuous times when everyone’s attention was focused on Z, while she was grappling to keep her sanity…
— Fereeha M Idrees (@Fereeha) August 27, 2023
It should be noted that a woman was gang-raped by people from whom she sought assistance on the motorway in September 2020, sparking indignation and calls for women’s security. In March 2021, the perpetrators were given the death penalty under Section 376 (ii) of the Pakistani Penal Code.
I must share with all of you that throughout this call, Z was in extreme anguish and pain. I started crying myself as I listened to her and at some points I felt so hopeless and shameful at how our quest for good viewership can make us so selfish and heartless. Z told me she… pic.twitter.com/BQOus7XGwa
— Fereeha M Idrees (@Fereeha) August 27, 2023
According to Fareeh’s post, the survivor has maintained her privacy and has declined to meet anyone, including politicians, celebrities, and others. She merely wanted the offenders to be punished.
“Can…. Can… can someone make a ddddrama on my life”? Were her first words. I had no idea that a drama serial by name of ‘Haadsa’ had been shown on Geo TV every weekday at 7pm apparently based on motorway rape story,“ it said.
She wondered why the producers were making such a drama based on the trauma with which she went. She went on to ask whether it was harassment or not.
“Oh my God I died watching that. I was numb. I was given a bath alive after the incident. Like they bathe dead bodies, that’s how I was bathed,” the survivor said and claimed that she was on injectables for three days after trauma.
“If they [the makers] cared so much, they could look into the matter and see why the offenders have not received their punishment,” she said to Fareeha “rather than choosing TRPs?”
The victim of a highway rape continued by saying that despite vowing never to enter into the public eye, she was “thrown into it again.”
She was reported as stating in the post, “Every time someone knocks at the door noisily, my kids look at me with anxious eyes because they know I would be afraid.”
The survivor has demanded that the drama be stopped.
“You are aware of how our nation treats victims,” she was quoted as saying in the post “Even if I dress up, it’s a crime; even if I smile, people condemn me; if I had died that night, they would have showed pity; now that I am alive, they are guaranteeing I die.”
Fareeha said that she informed the PEMRA of this incident in order for them to take action, and she urged the NGOs that support rape victims to speak out on this issue.
