Violence against women

Violence against women continues to grow in Pakistan. Despite the huge media focus on the crime against women of late, the illegal, unethical and unjustified practice is rather rising due to reasons like: the crime not being reported to the police in the first place for family honour or weak social status; the non-cooperation of the police, a flat denial in some cases, to register an FIR; low conviction rate, mainly because of poor police investigation and prosecution; etc.

Just last week, an outrageous incident of sexual abuse against a poor teenage girl happened in Rawalpindi. Reportedly, a group of drunken men stopped the 17-year-old who was returning home at night after performing maid service at a house, stripped off her clothes and posted the video clip online. The men are also accused of gang-raping the girl who says she is “helpless”, “does not have any support”, and is the “sole breadwinner” for her three orphaned brothers. The abused girl alleges that she had gone to the Banni police station but the police refused to file a report, and the accused too threatened her not to speak up.

The police did spring into action, but only when the video surfaced on social media, and they felt the pressure to act. Thus, according to the authorities in Rawalpindi, an FIR was registered against “intoxicated young men [who] stripped a 17-year-old girl naked and made a video” near Saidpuri Gate.

No wonder why Pakistan has, for years and years, been among the top five or six dangerous countries of the world for women, according to multiple surveys. Local media reports say that between 2011 and 2017, more than 51,241 cases of violence against women were reported in Pakistan, but the conviction rate is shamefully low. However, now is the time to make an example out of the “intoxicated young men” who abused a “helpless 17-year-old” so that such offenders are sent a strong signal that the state will not tolerate it anymore.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2020.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.