Rape apologists come out of the woodwork following the validation given by their leader Prime Minister Imran Khan. In a society as toxic as ours, the prevalent narratives tell women ‘not to get raped’ instead of telling men ‘not to rape’.
Herein, a woman saying no is considered to say ‘convince me’. In fact, women are seen as objects of sexual desire and not as autonomous human beings. Amidst the ongoing rape apology in the country, yet another advocator emerged when a problematic video clip surfaced on the internet.
A reporter of PNN News on-air draws an analogy between a woman and a toffee. Holding an unwrapped toffee in one hand and a wrapped one in another, the reporter blatantly asks, “If I leave this unwrapped toffee on the road, will anyone eat it?”
“No,” he says. “All the viruses, bacteria, flies, and whatnot will attack it. Whoever eats it will get ill.” Putting forward the wrapped toffee, he adds, “Anyone can eat this one because this is covered. It is protected from all the bacteria”. Coming towards his point, he then explains how PM Khan meant the same when he said, “If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men unless they are robots”.
Here is the video clip:
Be it a lollipop-analogy or a toffee-analogy, one fails to comprehend how women are always reduced to mere objects. What about the kids who are sexually abused? Do the boys in madrassas not dress appropriately? Are women clad in burqas not raped? We have instances where men sexually abuse animals. Should we clothe animals too?
Even infants, old and aged women, women suffering from unsoundness of mind, women in comma, or the buried dead bodies are not spared. How do you explain that? What could they have possibly done to catch a rapist’s fancy?
PM Imran Khan’s victim-blaming statement
Khan once again made rape apologist remarks in an interview with “Axios on HBO” with Jonathan Swan, which aired at 3 am PST on Monday morning. When discussing the ongoing sexual violence in Pakistan, PM Khan blatantly opined that rape is inevitable if a woman is wearing very few clothes. Moreover, he emphasized, “It is just common sense”.
Swan asked him about his previous comments pertaining to rape and vulgarity. Justifying his absurd remarks, PM said that it is “such nonsense”. He added, “I said that the concept of purdah is to avoid temptation in society. We don’t have discos here, we don’t have nightclubs. It is a completely different society, way of life here”.
“So if you raise temptation in the society to the point and all these young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences in the society,” he justified.
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