In a just world

In a just world, Dua Mangi would have gone to meet her friend, laughed, had a good time, and come home to her family. In a just world, her private life would remain private and not open to the scrutiny of moral policing. In a just world, people would blame those who kidnapped her rather than the victim. In a just world, her kidnappers would be punished.

This isn’t a just world, but the people who blame the victims of criminal actions still seem to be living in a utopia. That would be fine as long as that sort of thinking did no harm. Unfortunately, it gives rise to victim blaming, and because of that, we must dispel it from the minds of people.

According to Sherry Hamby, a professor of psychology, while talking to The Atlantic, one of the biggest factors that promotes victim blaming is the “just world hypothesis”. “There’s just this really powerful urge for people to want to think good things happen to good people and where the misperception comes in is that there’s this implied opposite: if something bad has happened to you, you must have done something bad to deserve that bad thing.”

We may all hope to live in a just world, but to blame victims is to ensure that we never achieve one.

While social media played a positive role in raising awareness about Dua Mangi’s abduction, it also exposed the internalised misogyny prevalent in Pakistan. When misogyny fuses with ideals about a “just world” you get people — mostly male — who attack a woman’s choice of clothing; her choice to be outside with a male friend; her gall at being free. All these are used as reasons to justify her ordeal. This mentality harms not just the victim and her family — but all women in this country.

Victim blaming is predominantly directed towards women, usually in cases concerning sexual crimes. It not only adds to the trauma of the victim, but also sends a more pernicious message to all women: societal and cultural norms — crafted by men — will get to decide who can be a victim and who cannot. In the mindset that has become prevalent in our society, only a particular kind of woman can be a victim. A woman who looks, dresses, and acts the way society wants. Everyone else is fair game. This is why many feminist scholars have argued that victim blaming harms all women.

It harms all women precisely because it creates an atmosphere that prevents women from coming forward. They fear the wrath of the moral brigade blaming them for the trauma they were forced to endure. The potential of being exposed to more trauma over and above the one already gone through is a major factor that causes women to remain silent. Psychologist Daanika Kamal, while speaking to BBC, pointed out that there were cases where families withdrew their complaints because of the outrage of victim blaming. Whoever indulges in victim blaming is on the side of the criminal, and they must be called out for it.

To eliminate victim blaming, we must work on the psychology that helps entrench a “just world hypothesis” in the minds of people. It has to start by us eliminating the taboo surrounding discussions on sexuality and sexual offences in our society. This will enable schools to teach children that misfortune can strike anyone. It does not matter what a woman wears — nothing can justify sexual offences or violence against women. Children are not born with an attitude to blame victims. It is inculcated in them through the environment in which they grow. Therefore, schools can be major force through which such attitudes can be dispelled.

The family too must be brought into this discussion. Children must be educated not just at school but at home as well. We need to have these conversations with our children without trying to teach them that we live in a just world. It has to be recognised that most sexual crimes against women are not committed by strangers jumping out from dark alleys, but by people that women know well. The “stranger” narrative merely allows people to shift the blame on to the woman yet again by saying that she could have avoided the criminal had she been more vigilant.

We must also make sure to discard, within our laws, those provisions which reinforce patriarchal stereotypes that allow for victim blaming. Chief among them is the Qanun-e-Shahadat’s provision that allows for a woman’s past sexual history to be brought in as evidence in cases of rape. A woman’s past has no bearing in such cases. It is about time we scrapped these evidentiary provisions from the law.

Blaming a victim robs the victim of their dignity. To blame them is to say that they deserved what happened to them. In a just world we wouldn’t need to have this conversation.

This isn’t a just world.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2019.

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