Inkaar – Zabarjinsi: Documentary highlights rape and its taboo

Film features eminent journalists, Mukhtaran Mai

ISLAMABAD: Human rights activists consented that women have been raising their voice against rape for years but it was now time for men to also step in and campaign for the cause.

“Rape is a harsh reality and a disastrous disease that is very deeply rooted in our society that even we are unaware of its roots. It is now time that we identify the roots and cut them before this menace grows even further,” women’s right activist and leader of the Nari Tehreek Campaign Fouzia Saeed said at the launch of Shoaib Mansoor’s documentary titled Inkaar – Zabarjinsi.

“The platform of Nari Tehreek Campaign aims to raise voice against rape and other abuses that women in Pakistan suffer,” she added.

She lauded Shoaib Mansoor’s efforts saying that he has spent as much time on the documentary as he would have on any of his feature films and his efforts must be applauded along with all television anchors who took out time and volunteered to raise their voice against rape in this documentary.

The documentary featured eminent journalists, including Hamid Mir, and also a short interview of rape victim and rights activist Mukhtaran Mai. The documentary highlighted that rape does not have a term in Urdu language and Mir went on to term rape as ‘Zabarjinsi’.

The documentary further featured interviews of victims and public asking them about the cause of rape, which highlighted the general but wrong belief that women provoke rape by the way they dress and appear in public.

Saeed went on to say that if men are the ones who cannot control themselves, then they are the ones who should be controlled and put behind bars, not women. “We are human beings not dogs and there should be a difference between us and animals,” she maintained.

The campaign is a voluntary movement of concerned women and around hundred organisations working on women’s rights. It focuses on changing attitudes towards violence against women and creating a safe society where women can live without the fear of being raped or violated in any way.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st,  2015.