LAHORE:
This is in reference to the news story, “Five-year-old raped in Lahore: IG Punjab presents report to SC”. We are living in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan — a place where faith only seems to exist on paper. We are more ferocious than the barbarians. We strongly criticise our neighbouring country India for such shameful acts, but right now we desperately need to look at ourselves. Thousands of people flooded the streets to protest against the gang-rape case in Delhi. We, on the other hand, will perhaps read the story and utter phrases like … ‘how shameful’! And our duty is done.
This disgraceful incident clearly shows that even schoolgoing children are not safe in this society. Suo-motu action is not enough, there is a dire need for tough policymaking in this regard and the perpetrators of this crime must be sentenced to death. India has proved itself to be a modern democratic state by giving the death penalty to violators, now it is our turn. The impact of this crime will not be limited only to the victim’s family; rather it will prove disastrous in our narrow-minded society where the education of girls has always remained a question mark. Official statistics released by the Federal Education Ministry of Pakistan show a desperate picture of education for all, especially for girls. The overall literacy rate is 46 per cent, while only 26 per cent of the girls in this country are literate. After such disgraceful incidents, parents will be more conscious and afraid to let their daughters out of their houses.
I want to quote here the words of Holy Prophet (pbuh): “Only great people respect women and only vile people disrespect women”.
Rabiya Ilyas
Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2013.
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