No, it was not her fault. The beasts that breached her dignity in front of her children are the ones to be blamed. The law enforcement agencies which failed to provide protection are to be blamed. Anyone who thinks women bring such catastrophes upon themselves is to be blamed! But the innocent, helpless woman who fell victim to this heinous crime cannot and will not be blamed.
The recent incident of rape and robbery which took place on the new Lahore-Sialkot Motorway has shaken the entire nation. The motorway, which was designed to connect the cultural capital of Pakistan, Lahore with industrial cities of Gujranwala, Sialkot and Gujarat, has started off with a very bad omen. In darkness of the night, a woman and her three children were subjected to the worst horror one can ever imagine. Dragged out of their car, they were forced into the nearby jungle and kept on gunpoint by spineless vultures.
Amongst the many heart-wrenching details of this gruesome encounter is the fact that the mother, no matter what was being done to her, was constantly trying to calm her children and praying for something to happen which would save them. Even after the beasts raped the innocent woman repeatedly in front of her children and then went off, the mother cuddled up her children, spreading her arms around them. She was protecting them like a sparrow spreads her wings around her nest to protect her chicks.
It is pity that the state failed to provide protection to her and many such women, children and transgenders, who are considered weaklings in society. Every human being deserves protection of life, property and honour. It is the most basic right accorded to citizens by the Pakistani Constitution. However, the state was unable to fulfil its duty in this case. Also, the very concept of ‘jurisdiction’ that is eating away at people’s very existence should be brought to light. Be it the ‘jurisdiction’ in court cases or ‘jurisdiction’ of the Motorway Police, Frontier Works Organization (FWO) or the National Highway Authority (NHA) in such cases, jurisdiction has always wreaked havoc in Pakistan. It took such an incident with an innocent helpless woman and her three naïve children, for the authorities to wake up and take responsibility of the patrolling and safety of the new motorway. So very unfortunate.
And what do we say about the nerve the high-ups of the government had, passing insensitive remarks about the incident. Public functionaries and government officials have to take responsibility of what happens in their domain, not playing ‘dodge the ball’ or more aptly ‘dodge the responsibility’ and shift the blame on each other. There needs to be holistic reform for a more efficient and close knit system of government, with better coordination, dutiful officers and ones who own up to their responsibility.
The ‘rights vs duties’ debate is relevant here. For every right there is a corresponding duty and vice versa. Thus, if it is a citizen’s duty to abide by laws and respect the state, he has a right to be afforded protection by the state. However, in this case, the state institutions floundered and no protection was provided to the woman in question. They could have saved her if there was better administration and efficient coordination between different limbs of law enforcement.
This is not the first occurrence of this nature and magnitude and sadly not the last. Such crimes are becoming so frequent and common. These incidents shake nations to their very core, destroying the families in question and teaching lessons to millions at their cost. Zainab Ansari and Marwah, little girls were lost to rape and murder. A young woman in search of a job was gang-raped by an employer and his friends in Lahore and another girl was abducted in Karachi Clifton and raped. Transgenders like Gul Panra weren’t spared either and were shot dead. Don’t these poor transgenders already live a very tough life and face humiliation on everyday basis, that even their last breath is snatched from them ruthlessly? And then women are raped in all parts of the country, with innumerable such incidents.
Such incidents jolt nations for all times to come and shake people’s conscience. In India, it was the gang rape case of Jyoti Singh on a bus in Delhi in 2012, which generated such coverage and even though Jyoti succumbed to the injuries and torture, she is known as a symbol of women’s resistance to rape around the world. And since Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victim’s name, she became to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’, meaning ‘fearless’. In Pakistan this motorway rape incident has also shaken the entire nation and people have gathered in protests all across to show support to the victim and to press for the punishment of the motorway gang-rape culprits who have been identified as Abid Ali, Shafqat and Waqarul Hassan Shah.
There are many things that should be done in this present scenario in Pakistan. Firstly, victim blaming needs to be stopped at all levels. The victim needs support, not blame. Secondly, an overhaul of the present NADRA database is required and collecting DNA samples of every citizen should be made mandatory. Take the DNA samples from the site of the incident, then run them through the NADRA database and find the match, catch the culprits and punish them!
Law enforcement also needs more muscle. The prime suspect in the motorway incident, Abid Ali has managed to dodge the police numerous times and is still at large. He was charged for a similar incident a few years ago, but was still roaming around freely. Why has the system failed to penalize a repeated offender? The loopholes in our criminal justice system are evident and need to be addressed at the earliest, if the system has to function properly.
Also, the state cannot create utopia in isolation from the public, who need to make their daughters, more conscious and aware and their sons, more God-fearing and of sound morality. Until the whole nation takes the issue in question seriously and tries to curb this menace, this rape culture would persist like a ‘hydra’ in our society, which was the monster with many heads in Greek mythology. If you cut off one hydra head, two more would grow back in its place. Thus until such destructive tendencies exist within the society, morality would merely peep through at it from afar and shy away.
The writer is a lawyer
The recent incident of rape and robbery which took place on the new Lahore-Sialkot Motorway has shaken the entire nation. The motorway, which was designed to connect the cultural capital of Pakistan, Lahore with industrial cities of Gujranwala, Sialkot and Gujarat, has started off with a very bad omen. In darkness of the night, a woman and her three children were subjected to the worst horror one can ever imagine. Dragged out of their car, they were forced into the nearby jungle and kept on gunpoint by spineless vultures.
Amongst the many heart-wrenching details of this gruesome encounter is the fact that the mother, no matter what was being done to her, was constantly trying to calm her children and praying for something to happen which would save them. Even after the beasts raped the innocent woman repeatedly in front of her children and then went off, the mother cuddled up her children, spreading her arms around them. She was protecting them like a sparrow spreads her wings around her nest to protect her chicks.
It is pity that the state failed to provide protection to her and many such women, children and transgenders, who are considered weaklings in society. Every human being deserves protection of life, property and honour. It is the most basic right accorded to citizens by the Pakistani Constitution. However, the state was unable to fulfil its duty in this case. Also, the very concept of ‘jurisdiction’ that is eating away at people’s very existence should be brought to light. Be it the ‘jurisdiction’ in court cases or ‘jurisdiction’ of the Motorway Police, Frontier Works Organization (FWO) or the National Highway Authority (NHA) in such cases, jurisdiction has always wreaked havoc in Pakistan. It took such an incident with an innocent helpless woman and her three naïve children, for the authorities to wake up and take responsibility of the patrolling and safety of the new motorway. So very unfortunate.
And what do we say about the nerve the high-ups of the government had, passing insensitive remarks about the incident. Public functionaries and government officials have to take responsibility of what happens in their domain, not playing ‘dodge the ball’ or more aptly ‘dodge the responsibility’ and shift the blame on each other. There needs to be holistic reform for a more efficient and close knit system of government, with better coordination, dutiful officers and ones who own up to their responsibility.
The ‘rights vs duties’ debate is relevant here. For every right there is a corresponding duty and vice versa. Thus, if it is a citizen’s duty to abide by laws and respect the state, he has a right to be afforded protection by the state. However, in this case, the state institutions floundered and no protection was provided to the woman in question. They could have saved her if there was better administration and efficient coordination between different limbs of law enforcement.
This is not the first occurrence of this nature and magnitude and sadly not the last. Such crimes are becoming so frequent and common. These incidents shake nations to their very core, destroying the families in question and teaching lessons to millions at their cost. Zainab Ansari and Marwah, little girls were lost to rape and murder. A young woman in search of a job was gang-raped by an employer and his friends in Lahore and another girl was abducted in Karachi Clifton and raped. Transgenders like Gul Panra weren’t spared either and were shot dead. Don’t these poor transgenders already live a very tough life and face humiliation on everyday basis, that even their last breath is snatched from them ruthlessly? And then women are raped in all parts of the country, with innumerable such incidents.
Such incidents jolt nations for all times to come and shake people’s conscience. In India, it was the gang rape case of Jyoti Singh on a bus in Delhi in 2012, which generated such coverage and even though Jyoti succumbed to the injuries and torture, she is known as a symbol of women’s resistance to rape around the world. And since Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victim’s name, she became to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’, meaning ‘fearless’. In Pakistan this motorway rape incident has also shaken the entire nation and people have gathered in protests all across to show support to the victim and to press for the punishment of the motorway gang-rape culprits who have been identified as Abid Ali, Shafqat and Waqarul Hassan Shah.
There are many things that should be done in this present scenario in Pakistan. Firstly, victim blaming needs to be stopped at all levels. The victim needs support, not blame. Secondly, an overhaul of the present NADRA database is required and collecting DNA samples of every citizen should be made mandatory. Take the DNA samples from the site of the incident, then run them through the NADRA database and find the match, catch the culprits and punish them!
Law enforcement also needs more muscle. The prime suspect in the motorway incident, Abid Ali has managed to dodge the police numerous times and is still at large. He was charged for a similar incident a few years ago, but was still roaming around freely. Why has the system failed to penalize a repeated offender? The loopholes in our criminal justice system are evident and need to be addressed at the earliest, if the system has to function properly.
Also, the state cannot create utopia in isolation from the public, who need to make their daughters, more conscious and aware and their sons, more God-fearing and of sound morality. Until the whole nation takes the issue in question seriously and tries to curb this menace, this rape culture would persist like a ‘hydra’ in our society, which was the monster with many heads in Greek mythology. If you cut off one hydra head, two more would grow back in its place. Thus until such destructive tendencies exist within the society, morality would merely peep through at it from afar and shy away.
The writer is a lawyer