Skeletons of society

You can call them barbarians masquerading as sages or wolves masquerading as the pious, at the end, they are just a bunch of vile, hungry men waiting for an opportunity to pounce upon a woman whenever they can.

Karachi city is short on entertainment spots. The only entertainment we possess in Karachi is in the form of food and/or chai and that is what the Karachi Eat Festival thrives upon each year. It thrives upon selling overly priced bland food to overly zealous and fervent young adults of the city to fulfil their drive for seeming valid amongst their informal social as well as professional peers. In its true essence, it’s where you buy expensive food which you don’t really need.

I could go on and on about how I feel about the Karachi Eat Festival but that would be unfair because after all, it adds some value to our lives.

What I do prefer commenting upon is the blithering idiocy portrayed by the guardians of righteousness, modesty and faith — the men who broke the gates of the Karachi Eat Festival, interrupted a musical performance and harassed women just because they could. Videos and news articles showed that a bunch of males tore down the barriers at the festival and ravaged the entire place. It ended with various families and women harassed by stags. According to various accounts, people had to escape through the broken walls to get to their cars safely, all because of psychotic men who wanted to be around females. Oh you embarrassing creatures!

I can point my finger at how bad the security was at the event but why should I? Granted, security should have been better managed and a higher number of guards should have been present but the question begs, why? Why do we need to protect our families from men of our society? The same men who go out and preach about protecting the sanctity of women using principles of religion and values.

It is unfortunate how foul, frustrated and horrific young adults in our society are turning out to be. Ironically, these young adults will go on to become fathers in the near future and ironically, they will be inculcating similar values in their children. We will basically be seeing the proliferation of such horrid beings which is the last thing we need at the moment.

This brings me to the idea of education, both formal and informal. The kind of education that you receive in schools is, of course, very important, but the education you receive from your home and from your parents is what shapes your entire personality. Seems like we have clearly been failing at both. Our family units may not be doing enough to prevent from such mentality being inculcated in the youth or maybe it’s the education system or lack thereof.

It’s the lack of repercussions and it’s a lack of rule of law. It’s a lack of morality and it’s a lack of humanity. It’s a lack of everything. Morally, we are headed towards a disaster. We need to stop treating women as prized possessions that have to be acquired through hardwork and by saying the right things. We have to quit objectifying women and start treating them like humans. Only then can we manage to override this dilemma.

I had always been against the idea of ‘no stags’ and against the idea of families only where the definition of family basically meant having ‘ladies’ with you. But after seeing what happened at Karachi Eat, it makes more sense having the ‘no stags’ policy. It makes complete sense. If men can’t behave like human beings around the opposite sex, it’s about time they’re kept away until they’re educated enough to be safely reincorporated into society.

Education begins from home. Boys learn from their fathers and their friends. If your friends and family objectify women, please read a book or stay indoors until you’re not a danger to society anymore.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2023.

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