Abyss of morality
Once again, there is a pall. Gut-wrenching stories of heinous crimes committed against women who were raped and brutalised have come to the fore. The latest incident involves a woman who was gang-raped in front of her two children as she waited for help on the motorway between Lahore and Gujranwala.
What followed this crime of utter moral depravity has shown why they continue to be perpetrated. The CCPO Lahore — the chief of police in the provincial capital of Punjab — who is mainly responsible for investigating the incident, blamed the victim for putting herself in a situation of harm. In particular, he remarked that being the national of a developed European nation, she considered that the motorway was perhaps just as safe with the writ of government and rule of law — a damning self-conviction from a senior police officer who is supposed to enforce government writ and law.
Some, including those in government, have inexplicably sought to defend the stance adopted by the Lahore police chief, perhaps betraying their thought process. The response to all of these issues is: a victim suffers a crime committed wilfully by a perpetrator. For investigators to place any part of the blame on the victim takes away their agency to seek justice while giving perpetrators leverage. Maybe this is why there is just a four per cent conviction rate for rapists in the country.
The online war which began over the CCPO’s remarks which if you stared at long enough in disbelief, you would see past the recent political divide and controversy that surrounds this particular officer and peer into the exposed, horrific core of Pakistani moral depravity. A large body of men in this country would rather morally policewomen for their choices than change the attitudes and actions which actually constitute crimes.
Perhaps this is why we continue to hear about honour killings, and even children being raped and then burnt. This is why we keep our women locked up in our houses instead of giving them equal space to work for the development of this country and perhaps turn it into a safe European nation.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2020.
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