How the mighty are fallen

#MeToo movement has seen its first conviction in Bill Cosby's sentencing

With comedian Bill Cosby beginning a 3-10 years’ jail sentence for the rape of a woman a decade ago, the #MeToo movement has seen its first conviction. It is to be hoped that there are many more men behind bars in future because sexual harassment of women in the film and entertainment industry, and not only in America, are finding their voices at last as well as finding that they are listened to by the police, prosecutors and the courts.

Despite the risks women in the subcontinent are beginning to come forward and to name names. Actor Tanushree Dutta has accused Bollywood stalwart Nana Patekar of ‘molestation’ and of ‘publicly beating’ actresses. Other women have also spoken of the way in which Patekar was shielded by a culture of ‘blind eyes’ and silence even from those at the very pinnacle in Bollywood, actors and directors that are global names, famous beyond the subcontinent.

The #MeToo movement has little traction in Pakistan, though there are several women’s advocacy groups that strive mightily to be heard against the sound-cancelling wall of indifference. There is no national network of women that can speak and act collectively in the way that #MeToo has elsewhere in the world, but the need for such an entity is no less in Pakistan and India, and perhaps even greater. There will be women like Dutta in Pakistan who have experiences to relate, to make public, and we may be certain that there are plenty of guilty men with much to hide. There are no men with the stature of Cosby, who truly was an icon — but there are more local icons and it is time for the Day of the Iconoclast. Have at it, women of Pakistan, and take up the cudgels.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2018.

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