Strip of shame

What is most horrifying about the account of stripping of a middle-aged woman and the beating of her 12-year-old daughter near Muzaffargarh is not that the incident took place, but that 100 people from the village stood by and silently watched as it happened. They did not intervene or make any attempt to stop the violence inflicted on a young girl and her mother. According to some accounts, only one or two men called for the denuded woman to be covered up and helped. Exactly the same kind of public reaction has been seen before in other places. What is it that prevented people from moving a muscle to help the victims? Was it fear of the politically influential people behind the crime, which we are told was intended to settle a dispute involving the woman’s son’s elopement with the daughter of one of the accused? Was it indifference to what happened? Was it a brutalisation which has made people irresponsive to abuse of all kinds against
the vulnerable?

This inaction goes to explain why we are seeing an increase in such acts of merciless violence. There are other factors at play too. The lack of police action against the perpetrators means there is a greater chance they will escape punishment. This can of course only encourage others to contemplate similar acts to settle petty scores. The message to police and to other local authorities to take greater initiative must come from the higher authorities. As organisations working for the rights of women have pointed out, we need to do more to offer them protection and empowerment. Continued reports of the most atrocious acts of violence against them are alarming. But we also need to assess what is wrong with a society which fails so completely to offer any help to those in distress. The targeting of minorities, of blasphemy accused, and of women is in part a consequence of this. The sense of community which holds people together has broken down — and this perhaps is most alarming of all.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2010.