KARACHI:
After many horrific incidents, the President of Pakistan finally signed the rape ordinance, which includes the punishment of chemical castration for repeated offenders. While it is a welcoming step, it is also important to know that such measures alone will not nearly be enough. Until and unless the mindset of the people and their ideas about gender and sexuality change, rape will remain rampant; and that is the honest truth.
It is a sad reality that many senior officials in Pakistan are quite misogynistic towards women — something that was evident when the CCPO Lahore blamed the woman for travelling late at night as a reason for her getting raped. Such statements are precisely why rape continues unabated. In the minds of men, in some way or the other, it is always the woman’s fault. Until the early 2000s, as part of the Hudood Ordinance, a rape victim could be punished by the court. The only way such injustice can persist in society is if men think of them as superior to a woman. Unfortunately, this is something that is ingrained in people since childhood.
Young girls are often deprived of education because of the belief that educating a girl has no use. In addition, the idea of marriage is also an example — the desired quality for a man for his ideal wife is physical beauty while many qualities such as intelligence or kindness are forgotten. This further re-enforces the idea that women are objects that belong to men rather than sentient beings.
Such a mindset will not change until our government takes decisive action to change the narrow-minded perspectives of people by encouraging parents to send girls to school and by introducing the idea of gender equality in the curriculum. I want a country that is safe for my mother and sister to live in; and until the patriarchal mindset is not changed, nothing will.
Amaan Yasser Effendi
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2020.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
