KARACHI:
Our victim-blaming culture has allowed sexual violence to continue unabashedly and perpetrators to go scot-free because people always resort to questioning the victim’s clothing, behaviour, etc. We treat victims as though they deserved to undergo the violence or abuse that they were subjected to.
Our law enforcement agencies offer little support to the victims, especially if the case is filed against a relative. They either refuse to file the case and tell the victim to resolve the problem on their own or they end up shaming the victim. In courts, lawyers probe into victims’ personal lives and ask them questions irrelevant to the case. The media further worsens the situation by constantly nagging the victims and their families for interviews. This not only adds to the victims’ trauma but discourages many other victims from reporting their cases.
In our society, men are given all sorts of leverage when it comes to sexual harassment and violence. Eve teasing and stalking are seen as trivial or harmless fun for adolescent boys. On the contrary, most girls have experienced some form of sexual harassment either before adolescence or during that period. Unfortunately, girls are taught to adjust to this highly distressing violation by not confronting their perpetrators and are instead policed on their behaviours and clothing. This is exactly the form of conditioning that makes us more prone to attacking the victim instead of reflecting on the perpetrator’s actions. However, almost all women have experienced some form of harassment or abuse at least once in their lifetime. Therefore, policing women is not a solution because their behaviour or clothing was never the problem. We must acknowledge that the misogynistic and victim-shaming culture that we have fostered over the years is the problem.
Eman Mudassar Tarar
Sargodha
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2022.
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