Not a day goes by, literally, when we don’t read or hear about another gruesome act of violence against women, predominantly a ghastly sexual assault, where even female children and infants are not spared.
And before we have long enough to process and grieve over one incident of gender-based violence, another has already been committed—at times more than one concurrently, and rarely reported—to a point where we can’t keep a count, clouding our short-lived memories with only a sense of stinging, collective pain and helplessness, while our yearning for accountability and justice is lost somewhere between these recurring repulsive acts and our conditioned reflex to them.
Considering that incidents of femicide and gender-based violence have gone up in Pakistan instead of witnessing a downward trend, the enactment of more laws and apparent attempts at better implementation seem to be addressing only a small part of this growing abusive trend.
Despite passing anti-rape legislation, domestic violence laws, and multiple amendments addressing crimes against women, preventive measures and conviction rates remain dismally low, reflecting the wide gap between enactment and execution.
The Need for Proactive Prevention
Lack of political will, societal taboos, stereotypes, and judicial processes mired in caveats and complexities together make the larger picture bleaker. Clearly, while we might be doing something to curb GBV in the country, it is certainly not enough, nor is it being done in a way that yields any discernible results.
Our half-hearted efforts are usually restricted to working towards legal enforcement, sustained judicial support, better digital safety frameworks, and community mobilisation, all of which are essential, but are primarily reactive measures to be applied in the aftermath of an act of violence. Proactive steps that forestall or prevent abuse before it happens—through awareness-raising campaigns, education, community engagement, the challenging of norms and stereotypes, teaching consent, creating safe spaces for women, and empowering women economically—are hardly undertaken.
What might begin as cyberstalking, doxxing, trolling, or online abuse causing mental trauma, quickly transforms into real-life repercussions as we have witnessed in so many recent and earlier cases of femicide
If we are serious about nipping GBV in the bud, the whole ‘ecosystem’ nurturing violence against women must be disabled, and we need to decide where to start.
GBV is a deep-rooted, multi-faceted challenge in our society, stemming from individual attitudes, family dynamics, community norms, and so much more, and hence requires a commitment to multi-sectoral approaches before we can even cause a dent in this scourge.
The Digital Amplifier of Abuse
A mere fixing of any one dimension or two within this choking ecosystem that helps fester and foster the bane of GBV is, therefore, not enough to prevent the evil from spreading, while the proliferation of social media, AI, and smartphones has added to the affliction manyfold, as high-profile incidents of TFGBV are also increasing at a pace much faster than what we have the will or the capacity to control.
What might begin as cyberstalking, doxxing, trolling, or online abuse causing mental trauma, quickly transforms into real-life repercussions as we have witnessed in so many recent and earlier cases of femicide. Online threats frequently spill over into real-world violence, harassment, and acts that cause severe psychological distress.
Confronting the Culture of Entitlement
A woman who asserts herself or her autonomy in any way is always deemed as someone who must be punished for going wayward: women who have a voice and speak up must be silenced; girls who marry out of choice must be eradicated; women who decide to dare marital norms must be slaughtered; little plucky girls stepping out of the house to play must be raped and strangled; women trusting a stranger must pay the price for ‘indiscretion’ and endure assault.
This is the reality of being born a girl in Pakistan, and we are doing very little to change this. What should begin as the very first steps entailing how we bring up our sons and male members in the house, only ends up, later in the cycle, in the form of victim-blaming and questioning women’s clothes, choices, and character, once they are targeted by the same ‘unrestrained’ men.
What should begin as pre-emptive measures taming boys early on, ends up only as ill-directed and misguided reactive measures that are too little, too late.
The rot runs too deep and wide to be ignored any more. The plethora of reports of violence against minor girls in the media recently further shows the sickness that needs to be addressed before it becomes chronic, and highlights the need to recognise the scale of violence being repeatedly inflicted on women and young girls.
We need to first start by carrying out an honest acknowledgement of the rape culture in our society and step out of our denial mode; a culture reflected in the attitudes that justify violence against women and the immediate reaction seeped in questioning and reprimanding victims; a culture well-reflected when we expend all our energy in controlling girls under the garb of counselling, while failing to emphasise how important the same level of control, or even higher, is for boys.
Uprooting Toxic Masculinity
Toxic masculinity is sustained and nourished under the silence of men and women who witness its early signs at any stage and choose to ignore them, while doing nothing to challenge the threats.
As a society, we need to seek and detect early warning signs in young boys and men and develop systems that will intercept GBV later on. Just like while dealing with climate emergencies we speak of early warning and detection systems, each one of us, men and women, needs to start from our homes to detect what turns little and older boys, and young men around us into raging, raping, butchering, entitled monsters, to prevent avalanches of violence.
If we spot male entitlement and toxic masculinity taking root in young boys, that is the time to firmly uproot it before it spreads its tentacles. We should not brush it aside with the excuse that the boy is just a child; a boy child will have this malignant machismo metastasise and multiply, unless it is snubbed before it buds.
A Grim Reality in Numbers
A report in Dawn this week reveals how sexual crimes against women are on the rise in Lahore too, despite Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s policy of zero tolerance towards sexual assault of women. The report states that at least six women were allegedly raped, three young girls among them, including a mentally challenged 15-year-old. The women were sexually harassed in various parts of the provincial metropolitan in the last few days.
Rawalpindi recently witnessed its own share of cases of violence against women, including Hina Javed’s brutal murder. We have still not got over the Noor Mukadam case, as Zahir Jaffer continues to live even after over five years since he committed the femicide, and the Supreme Court dismissed his review appeal last month.
Data compiled by rights groups monitoring gender-based violence in the country suggests an average of roughly 11 reported rape incidents per day nationwide. The recorded numbers are certainly lower than the actual numbers, as social stigmas, fear, and consequences force women to suffer further in silence after enduring assaults.
The vituperative world of social media with its misogynist and other extremist tendencies, together with easy access to AI, have led to an overall increase in GBV, disproportionately targeting women and girls. Perpetrators increasingly use generative AI tools to create Non-Consensual Intimate Images and deepfakes, while manipulating social media platforms to blackmail, shame, and silence women.
Reports from organisations like the Digital Rights Foundation show thousands of annual cyber-harassment complaints from women and members of marginalised groups. It is also reported that while objectionable content against men is often flagged by social media platforms, the ‘men-made’ algorithms usually fail to flag troubling online comments and content targeting women.