It is the height of irony that women who give birth to men are subjected to rape and many other kinds of violence around the world, and Pakistan is no exception.
On November 29 (today), a woman, hailing from Karachi, was allegedly raped several times after being tricked into travelling to Lahore over promise of marriage. This serious problem calls for immediate and effective steps by the authorities.
The incident
A woman was allegedly raped multiple times in two separate incidents in Lahore, it emerged today. The case was registered under sections 376 (rape), 109 (abetment of ‘zina-bil-jabr’) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
In the complaint, the victim stated that she used to play the online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) during which she befriended a man identified as Harris.
“He told me to come to travel to Lahore and said that we would get married,” the victim said, adding that she arrived in the city on November 23 by train. She said that Harris took her to the Rose Hotel where he raped her for three days.
He also refused to marry her and dropped her off at the train station on November 26 and left, the FIR stated. The victim said that while she was waiting at the station, two men named Waheed and Hassan, promised to find her a job.
She said that the suspects took her to a house on Sarwar Road where two more men, Ali Sajjad and Abdul Wahab, helped them take her into a room. The victim said that Waheed and Hassan raped her several times, but she was later able to escape.
The rape culture
A Thompson Reuters survey has revealed Pakistan as the sixth-most dangerous country in the world. In Pakistan, between 10 and 15 children are sexually abused every day. Also, at least 11 rape cases are reported every day.
According to official statistics, more than 22,000 women have been raped or gang-raped over the past six years in the country, and only 77 of the accused have been convicted.
A large number of rape incidents are not reported to the police because of the social stigma attached to rape survivors and the fear of reprisals from the side of the rapists. Ironically, society tends to blame the survivors more than the perpetrators of the heinous crime.
The reason why the country has a rapidly increasing number of rape crimes is the implementation of punishments for this crime. Also, even the rapists know that the law enforcement agencies will show a lax attitude when it comes to catching them.
Pakistan’s laws prescribe death sentence and imprisonment ranging from 10 years to 25 years for rape. The punishment for gang rape is death penalty. Unfortunately, even stringent punishment has failed to instill fear in criminal elements.
Why Pakistan is lacking?
The question that arises is that why is Pakistan facing this rape epidemic when the country proudly claims itself to be an Islamic Republic and Islam strictly prohibits such acts. One reason for the poor rate of conviction is slack implementation of laws and the slow legal process.
Another reason may be the misogynistic mindset of the society as a whole, every time the media reports a rape case, society starts questioning the victim about their whereabouts, their choice of clothes, who they were with, whether they were alone or not, what time it was and the list goes on.
The recent surge can also be attributed to the victim blaming mindset, when these monsters see that only the victim is reprimanded time and again by society, they gain confidence and feel as if they are invincible and therefore can do whatever they please to whomever.
Moreover, an outcry for publicly hanging of the rapist can be heard from the society, it may be the best solution for this rape epidemic. An optical justice may satisfy public hunger however it does not resolve the issue. As long as core issues remain in society and if they are not dealt with it will only increases the chances of such incidents to occur again and again.
