Reporting women abuse

The recent spike in reports of violence against women has sent a wave of concern around the country, but we must ask: is the rate of violence actually increasing, or is it that more women are willing to come forward? While neither can be definitively proven, we are inclined to consider the latter more likely. This is because, historically speaking, there had been horribly low reporting rates for crimes against women. This was partially due to Pakistan’s social structure. Women were, and still are killed for bringing ‘dishonour’ to the family if they told anyone they were raped. Sometimes such women would even be married off to their rapists to ‘preserve honour’ while condemning them to a life of physical and mental torture.

Problems in the law were also a factor, as it used to be practically impossible to prove sexual assault, and the law instead punished genuine victims by making them out to be false accusers. The recent case of a seminary principal sexually abusing and torturing a minor female student in Rawalpindi illustrates the change in societal attitudes. The abuse of children at a few seminaries has been a known fact for decades. Unfortunately, just like church abuse scandals in the West and temple abuse scandals in the East, no one was willing to talk about it in public until very recently. But even in other countries and other faiths, people were unwilling to talk because they feared being ostracised by their communities. But opinions eventually shifted, and people came to accept that a child cannot consent to such actions, and that victims need to be believed and protected.

The process did not take place overnight, and it was not always widely supported. Like Pakistan, several western countries have seen misogynists and conservatives push back against the rise in reporting sex crimes by blaming what women wear, ‘modern’ entertainment, or the internet. But the fact is that sexual violence has a history as long as humankind, and it has always been a tool to assert power and dominance. That is why we must empower women, and why good people with power must step up to protect those without it.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2021.

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