In the past few decades, the role of women in our society has been drastically changed. Women can be seen as fighter-jet pilots, educationists, customer services head, company executives, admin heads, banking, HR and telecom sector. Women are making a tremendous contribution in each sector. Men are no longer considered as the only bread earner of the house. Women of the family are now also financially supporting their family.
Though the number of working women is increasing day by day but women in Pakistan suffer widespread human rights violations. Women face cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments such as floggings and stoning to death. The discrimination against women in law reinforces their vulnerability to other human rights violations. Women's rights are seen as being of secondary importance and women are in a particularly weak position if they try to gain redress.
Pakistan witnessed several cases of gender-based violence for the past couple of months, shedding light on the deplorable state of women’s rights in the country.
Following the number of incident, prominent female showbiz personalities speak about the fear women feel as a result of such heinous crimes. They went on to add on how the country is not a safe place for women.
Actor Mehwish Hayat tweeted out a message about the shock she felt after hearing the news of assault of a female TikToker during Independence Day celebrations at Greater Iqbal Park, which houses the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore. She explained that the mere existence of a woman in a public space has become enough to provoke men into committing violent crimes against her.
“Yet again, I’m left shocked and speechless. Any decent society should have dignity, security, and respect for women. Seems this doesn’t apply to us. Now a woman just being in a place is provocation enough for her to be groped. I sincerely fear for every daughter of Pakistan. God save us!” the actor said.
Actor Ushna Shah echoed the same sentiment, speaking about how the nation has failed to protect its women. "There is nothing I can say that hasn’t been said already. I am afraid… for myself, for all of us. What else has to happen for every single person to accept the fact that women are not safe in Pakistan. Women are not safe,” she said.
On how the assaulters did not even care for the sanctity of the holy month of Muharram, actor Kubra Khan noted, “1 Girl. 400 men. Muharram. Am I angry? disgusted? Yes. More than that, I’m scared. Terrified for the safety of our daughters, sisters, mothers. The height of beghairati [shamelessness] had been crossed long ago, but the animals of Pakistan, had you no shame? No fear of Allah?”
Maya Ali wasn’t able to believe what she saw in the video. “I can’t believe what I’ve just watched. I feel sick to my stomach and I feel ashamed to call them human. This time it wasn’t 3 am in the morning, this time it wasn’t dark, it happened in broad daylight whilst the azaan sounded in the background.”
Mawra Hocane emphasized that she feels unsafe and wants the authorities to take action. “The persistent audacity to blame the victim furthers our stance… women are unsafe… no matter the clothes, no matter the circumstances [or] class! The government needs to take serious actions… we need capital punishments. I feel unsafe I don’t know anyone who doesn’t!”
Designer Maheen Khan is disappointed in the current government. “I am now officially not a PTI supporter. If you cannot bring your self to punish a single rapist. If you are not willing to protect women and children, if you continue to turn a blind eye then you too are complicit. Allah forgive us all.”
When Meesha Shafi ignited Pakistan’s #MeToo movement in 2018, she said she wanted to end the culture of silence around sexual harassment. Now, the singer and actor is under a court-imposed gag order while fighting a libel lawsuit.
Like in the US, Pakistan’s #MeToo movement took off on the back of celebrity star power, sweeping halls of power, film sets and newsrooms. But it also sparked a wider awareness campaign, propelling the taboo-stricken issue into the limelight in the Islamic republic.
Shafi, a model and fashion icon turned singer, was one of the first Pakistani stars to attach her name to the cause. In a lengthy statement posted to Twitter in April 2018, she accused Ali Zafar of “sexual harassment of a physical nature.” While she refrained from detailing what she called multiple incidents, she appealed for ordinary women to share their stories too. “If this can happen to someone like me, an established artist, then it can happen to any young woman,” she wrote.
In Pakistan, #MeToo has faced an uphill battle from the outset. Even as rights groups say sexual and domestic violence against women is endemic, victims who report incidents are often treated like criminals and blamed for their assaults. Justice can be hard to come by in a country where an estimated 1,000 women are killed each year by their families over damaged honour, including violations like clapping and singing with boys. Feminism meanwhile is widely dismissed as a “Western concept,” including by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Those who dare to say #MeToo in Pakistan have also found themselves confronting a draconian cybercrimes law that was ostensibly enacted to protect women from online harassment.
The 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act—the law under which Shafi and the eight others were charged—allows the government to censor online content, access user data and criminalize some forms of communication. In response to an early draft of the bill, Human Rights Watch labeled it “a clear and present danger to human rights.”
The criticism, oft-repeated by right-wing men and establishment feminists, is essentially one of how younger feminists have indicted the cultural fabric that has been weaponised to subordinate and subjugate us. This dismissal is a policing tool to shame women back into ‘traditional’ roles. The incessant need to silence such women goes to show how we as a society are forever in search of that elusive perfect victim to empathise with — a meek woman who asks politely and acquiesces easily.