Our rape problem

A problem that is affecting half of the country’s population

There, it is out in the open. We, as a country, have a big rape problem. The men here sexually assault women with wanton abandonment. Some fellow men indulge in victim-blaming, others fail to do their jobs to bring the perpetrators to book, affecting half of the country’s population. The fact is that our problem is not limited to age or gender. Victims range from children to the elderly. From girls to boys. Many quickly jumped to argue that rapes take place because the victim was wearing a certain kind of clothes, was not accompanied by a male relative, was passing through a “gloomy” area at a particular time of night. The fact is that rapes happen in Pakistan for want of serious steps at stopping them. But are things due to change any time soon?

Despite the noise being made online or from certain quarters, one does not see any positive changes in the context even in the distant future. Nearly two weeks after the motorway incident wherein a woman was dragged from her car along with her two minor children and then gang-raped, there have been only excuses — and even more rapes. The main suspect in the case — that has been a cause of disgrace for Pakistan the world over — remains at large while some of the other suspects identified voluntarily came forward to deny charges. The police only seem to be groping in the dark as the whole nation anxiously awaits progress in the case.

The CCPO Lahore, the police officer who blamed the victim and remains at a loss to understand the public outrage over it, still holds his position while his newly-installed boss frets his standing in the department. Indeed, the IG Punjab only this week wrote to the Rawalpindi regional police officer telling him to shape up the state of investigations in 90 cases of rapes and robberies in the district. What is the state in the other districts is quite apparent. The emergence of Faisalabad as a hub of crime in recent months is alarming but no one wants to speak of it.

Sure, there have been vociferous calls for hanging rapists and subjecting them to castration — irrespective of the fact that this argument fails both at our international commitments and what the clergy in the country believes should be the punishment handed down to such criminals. But none of these offers a solution to why these things happen in the first place.

There are two major areas which require the utmost attention if we are to be able to fix this issue. First, there is a need for deep, research-based introspection from a societal standpoint into why these things happen. What are the combinations of measures needed to stop these crimes from happening? The second is the legal aspect. Whether that means strengthening laws around not just rape but also sexual harassment — at the workplace and in domestic settings. Then there is a need to fix the investigation aspect so that when a culprit is taken to court, the police can effectively prove their case beyond any doubt and ensure a conviction — whose current rate languishes at a mere four per cent. There is also an urgent need to look into a quasi-judicial measure where the rapist and the victim are coerced into a compromise and the victim is forced to marry her rapist.

None of these is easy steps and requires ‘action as a whole’ to mount an adequate response to our rape problem.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2020.

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