The Silence of Violence By Fajr Khan

Rape on motorways. Rape in little girls’ bedrooms. Rape in the light of day and the dark veil of the night. It is this constant fear that creeps along every Pakistani woman and girl’s spine. Every day. Of every week. Of every year. Of every lifetime. 

The Thomson Reuters foundation ranks Pakistan as the sixth most dangerous country for women in the world. The News Pakistan cites at least 11 cases of rape being reported daily. Public bathrooms. Schools. Parks. Strangers. Friends. Relatives. Pakistani women are at risk of sexual assault at any moment, at any time. From cradle to grave this horrific reality of being a female in Pakistan is ceaselessly passed down generations. 

Sexual violence is the biggest issue facing women and girls in Pakistan today, because it feeds a vicious cycle of gender-based suffering sustaining their oppression. If women and girls are not able to walk outside without the fear of being assaulted, how can they speak up about the suffering and oppression they endure? How can their mothers let them advocate for their lives, if while doing so they may lose them, or face trauma far worse than death? Before women and girls in Pakistan can fight for their equal rights, they need to be able to advocate for societal reform, which can only happen without the constant risk to their autonomy and lives.

Malala Yousafzai hanging on to her life by a thread for fulfilling her right to an education remains a reminder of the horrific violence Pakistani women and girls endure, so Pakistani men can strip them of their rights by cornering them into helpless circumstances. Thirteen year old Kainat Soomro (1993) gangraped for days, and thirty year old Mukhtaran Bibi (2002) raped on village-council orders. All of their rapists were acquitted. Seven year old Zainab Ansari (2018) raped, tortured and strangled. Her rapist was sentenced to death only in light of the twelve other prepubescent girls he raped. Sexual violence is the

most commonly wielded weapon of oppression and control, because of the leniency in its conviction. The Women’s Action Forum estimates that 82% of rapists are family members of the raped. Fathers. Brothers. Uncles. Cousins. But strangers too nonetheless. 

The recent gangrape of a mother in front of her two children on the Lahore motorway after she ran out of gas prompted an immense outcry, after senior police officer Sheikh blamed the mother for being out alone late at night and not checking the gas before leaving. This culture of victim blaming has plagued justice courts, who appear to express a lack of empathy for raped women and girls. This cruelty is reflected by a mere 2.5% of assaulters being convicted by the courts out of the 51,241 cases of gender-based violence reported by White Ribbon Pakistan between 2011 and 2017. The combination of familial complexities and victim blaming has aggravated a culture pressuring women to suffer in silence, allowing rapists to swiftly get away with their crimes whilst achieving their goal of silencing. 

Diminishing sexual assault against women and girls in Pakistan is paradoxical in the sense that women can only actively advocate for putting an end to sexual violence, if they are able to do so without a risk to their safety. However, if policies can be implemented to limit authority figures from unjustly manipulating the conviction of sexual assault cases, this can ensure that women and girls are more confident in their battle against oppression. Therefore, women and girls need to be given more positions of authority in justice systems and government, to amplify the voice of the silenced community they represent. 

For this to happen safely and effectively, a drastic change in Pakistani mindset is necessary. As Emma Watson mentioned in her speech at the United Nations, gender equality is a men’s issue too. Involving men will help overcome problematic gender-based expectations that they too face, whilst simultaneously targeting the primary propagators of sexual violence. My male peers at school attended the motorway-rape protest, and this allegiance needs to be reverberated by all boys and men around the

country. This can be done through mandatory implementation of educational programs for both girls and boys at all schools. Anonymous platforms for women and girls to safely tell their stories is also vital for widespread awareness. Until all Pakistanis join to weather the roots of sexual violence in the country, we will continue to live in a society where women and girls are disproportionately silenced by violence.