Net of abuse

The story of a former schoolteacher, gang-raped by four men with the video then posted on the internet, underscores the urgent need for a law to tackle cybercrime of all types. The young woman, who has barely left her home in a remote village since the crime and especially after the widespread circulation of the video shot by her assailants, faces perpetual torture. While the men who raped her were eventually found, the video documenting her ordeal remains on the internet, adding to her humiliation and the grotesque invasion of privacy she has already suffered. A short, five-minute version of the clip and a far longer 40-minute one have both been placed in the highly public sphere of the internet and have apparently been widely watched. The police say they have no means to force them to be taken down. In fact, they seem to have no law to help them either. A comprehensive ordinance on cybercrime, laying down a possible three-year jail term for anyone using the internet for purposes of sexual harassment, lapsed four years ago. Parliament has failed to enact a similar law, and the police must turn to dated laws on sexual harassment to address such issues.

The rape the young woman suffered through was reported after her uncle saw the video online. She had not spoken of it due to the social stigma attached with this heinous crime. The fact that the victim’s mother was not alive to support her through the ordeal made the situation harder for her, though mercifully she received support from her father and other family members when the matter came to light. Harassment of a sexual nature, using the internet and social media, is becoming more and more widespread and there have been similar instances reported before too. The practice needs to be clamped down on. Emotional scars can take longer to heal than physical ones, and we urgently need to put up a legal barrier that can protect people against abuse inflicted on cyber-space. Such abuse is very real and very damaging.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th,  2015.

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