ISLAMA BATH, Pakistan – A scream erupted in Pakistan after Prime Minister Imran Khan blamed an increase in rape cases on how women dress, remarks that activists deny blaming a culture of the victim.
Mr. Khan commented on a live television program earlier this week when asked what the government is doing to curb an increase in sexual violence against women and children. Mr. Khan acknowledges the seriousness of the problem and points to the country’s strict anti-rape laws.
But, he said, women had to do their part.
“What is the concept of purdah?” he said, using a term that refers to the practice of seclusion, covering or hiding clothing for women in some South Asian communities. “It’s to stop temptation. Not every man has willpower. If you continue to increase vulgarity, it will have consequences. ”
The uproar was rapid.
The Pakistan Human Rights Commission, an independent group, has demanded that Mr. Khan apologizes for his remarks, which he calls ‘unacceptable behavior of a public leader’.
“It not only betrays a staggering ignorance about where, why and how rape takes place, but it also places the blame on rape survivors,” the group said.
Khan’s office on Wednesday issued a statement saying the prime minister’s remarks had been misrepresented.
“The Prime Minister spoke about the societal reactions and the need to put together our efforts to completely eliminate the threat of rape,” the office said in the statement. “Unfortunately, part of his remark, consciously or unconsciously, was distorted to mean something he never intended.”
Mr. Khan’s government has come under intense pressure to expedite justice for rape survivors, following a series of assaults leading to the demand for the death penalty in such cases. In December, the government adopted a measure that says men convicted of rape could be sentenced to chemical castration.
There are few reliable statistics on rape in Pakistan, but rights activists believe it is a serious under-reported crime, in part because victims are often treated as criminals or blamed for the assaults. Thousands of protesters took to the streets last year after a police officer in the eastern city of Lahore said a woman who was raped on an abandoned highway was partly to blame for the attack.
For critics, the comments of Mr. Khan this week reinforced misogynistic attitudes that exacerbate the problem for women.
“The victim who blames women’s clothes and police them is constantly perpetuating rape culture,” said Laaleen Sukhera, a writer and PR consultant in Lahore.
“Everyone and everything seems to be to blame, except the real perpetrators,” she said.
Even Mr. Khan’s first wife, Jemima Goldsmith, a wealthy British heiress, weighed in on Twitter. ‘The problem is not how women dress! She wrote in one post. In another, she said she hoped Mr. Khan was quoted incorrectly because the man she knows has different opinions.
Before he became prime minister, Mr. Khan a cricket star and a famous A-list who cut a glamorous figure and was known as a ladies man. He was married in 1995 to Mrs. Goldsmith married and they divorced in 2004. But he became increasingly conservative in the mid – 1990s after entering politics, and he has been accused for the past few years of being too sympathetic to the Taliban.
For women’s rights activists, the comments from Mr. Khan this week is just the latest example of the challenge they face in finding support for their cause in the deeply conservative society. Organizers of women’s rights marches on International Women’s Day last month said they were accused of ‘vulgarity’ for campaigning for equal rights.
“It is already extremely challenging for women of all ages in public spaces in Pakistan, whether on the street or at work or in the digital space, even in their own homes,” she said. Sukhera, the author in Lahore, said. “Regressive preaching prevents women from regaining what needs to be done to them and needs to be addressed.”