The writer has taken a very simplistic view of a complex phenomenon, i.e., rape.
LAHORE: This is with reference to the article “Rape is sex without consent — period” (September 20). The writer has taken a very simplistic view of a complex phenomenon, i.e., rape. According to the writer, a secular government and an educated populace is a panacea for rape. However, recently a study was carried out in the US called the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, which reported that almost “one in five women have been raped in their lifetime”. So, even in a secular, educated and enlightened country, the prevalence of rape is very high.
The problem is not with education or the system of government; rather it is a matter of perception because rapists perceive women as objects of pleasure. What society at large needs to do is to project different roles of women. Women should not be seen only as child bearing machines or fancy faces that we put on billboards, or as models who walk the ramps or as wives who stay at home and cook for men. Women, apart from physical differences, are equal to men and very capable of working like men in more or less every field of life.
This message needs to be taught by parents to children inside their homes, by teachers to students at schools, by clerics to pupils in madrassas, by parliamentarians to the general public; in short, this needs to be done by all and sundry. Only when this mindset is changed will the prevalence of rape be reduced.
Omer Butt
Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2013.
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