It seems the prime minister and his supporters lack the basic understanding of how rapes occur. His ideas reflect the tendency of the state to tilt towards conservatives. Massive demonstrations by the TLP, attacks on minorities, banning of books in the Punjab and the rise of anti-Shia sentiments all reflect the strengthening of the rightwing in the country.
The situation has reached a point of absurdity; the Council of Islamic Ideology even proposed deleting of chapters on reproduction and to cover the diagrams in biology books. This madness has something at its base; the crisis of capitalism. The state is now forced to make an alliance with the conservatives to establish law and order, otherwise the power of state is in danger. The role once given to the liberal education, which was to disseminate knowledge at schools on modern scientific basis has now eroded. The books are now adulterated to please the clergy or otherwise they would hit the roads with furor - as the TLP has demonstrated only a few months ago.
The interview of the PM and his remarks reflect a rotting system. To ensure the basic rights of women, the PM believes in the colonial idea of sex-thirsty heterosexual men of “lesser developed” societies. Such ideas were repeatedly used against blacks and other races, justifying mass murders by the imperial powers. Currently, the PM justifies treatment of women with such rotten ideas, which have long been demonstrated to hold no valid ground.
Such ideas, however, reflect the weakness of the state against the right wing, which also includes the infuriated petty bourgeoise clumped by the economic crisis. The rise of such a fascist frenzy is in tune with the state’s determination to shun dissenting voices, targeting journalists and enforced disappearances under the garb of a hybrid war and repeated attempts at reversing the 18th amendment.
The economic crisis and the power vacuum filled by the right wing show us a horrendous future; a future that is dark, regressive and more oppressive than ever before.
All modern studies on rape and sexual abuse point towards something very different from what has come out of PM’s mouth: it is not about the dress. It is about power, how the gender power balance is tilted towards men in certain societies due to the nature of capitalism and provides opportunities for sexual abuse.
Oppression is the byproduct of capitalism and exploitation is the method through which the ruling class robs the worker of surplus value. Rape is an individual affair, in contrast to other institutional oppression (like sexism and racism) but is the result of institutional inequality - stemming from the family structure, legal system and other social institutions that treat women as secondary citizens.
Rapes occur all over the world and are entirely related to power. Where the power roles change, in certain conditions, so does the gender of abused: male prisoners in juvenile prisons are abused predominantly by female staff in the US, according to a peer reviewed study in 2014.
So, by the analogy of the PM, are we implying here that juveniles in such prisons wear seductive clothing that drives the female staff crazy? Or is there something more serious and structural to be considered? In the same way, the state doesn’t seem to bat an eye towards students in seminaries and transgenders who are subject to abuse of such powerful men in our societies.
Many cases of sexual violence go unreported. If they are reported, then many times the police do not pursue it. The whole structure exists to support the exploiter due to the nature of capitalism itself.
Many liberals have set feet to expose the government and the clergy’s hypocrisy. Many are turning to the analysis of how seminaries work and nurture misogynistic ideas. While the class analysis and the effects of such ideas are close to the truth, but the whole analysis seemed reductionist.
In fact, the misogyny bred in those madrassahs is not only because of older interpretations of the religion but also because it serves a bigger purpose. The contribution of the madrassah to the political arena holds importance in this regard and with the state intervention in the past three decades, madrassahs have been very much politicized their recruits as jihadists.
In the wake of liberalisation under Musharraf’s time and the War on Terror, the madrassahs faced a crisis. Indeed, the subsequent economic crisis has led to a power vacuum. The misogyny is one of the tools exercised by such class to enforce power - deriving from the might of divine interpretation. The cause of homosexuality hinted to be because of less exposure to women is again very reductionist. Such tendencies have a long history, way before the British colonised India. A skim through the works such as autobiography of Mir Taqi Mir would highlight the prevalence of such tendencies within the pre-colonial society where madrassahs functioned as educational institutions for bureaucracy. So, it is not solely due to the less exposure of women that such tendencies exist. Indeed, our focus must be on the nature of exploitation that exist in educational institutions and madrassahs. The exploitation that exists because of the nature of capitalism.
The situation has reached a point of absurdity; the Council of Islamic Ideology even proposed deleting of chapters on reproduction and to cover the diagrams in biology books. This madness has something at its base; the crisis of capitalism. The state is now forced to make an alliance with the conservatives to establish law and order, otherwise the power of state is in danger. The role once given to the liberal education, which was to disseminate knowledge at schools on modern scientific basis has now eroded. The books are now adulterated to please the clergy or otherwise they would hit the roads with furor - as the TLP has demonstrated only a few months ago.
The interview of the PM and his remarks reflect a rotting system. To ensure the basic rights of women, the PM believes in the colonial idea of sex-thirsty heterosexual men of “lesser developed” societies. Such ideas were repeatedly used against blacks and other races, justifying mass murders by the imperial powers. Currently, the PM justifies treatment of women with such rotten ideas, which have long been demonstrated to hold no valid ground.
Such ideas, however, reflect the weakness of the state against the right wing, which also includes the infuriated petty bourgeoise clumped by the economic crisis. The rise of such a fascist frenzy is in tune with the state’s determination to shun dissenting voices, targeting journalists and enforced disappearances under the garb of a hybrid war and repeated attempts at reversing the 18th amendment.
The economic crisis and the power vacuum filled by the right wing show us a horrendous future; a future that is dark, regressive and more oppressive than ever before.
All modern studies on rape and sexual abuse point towards something very different from what has come out of PM’s mouth: it is not about the dress. It is about power, how the gender power balance is tilted towards men in certain societies due to the nature of capitalism and provides opportunities for sexual abuse.
Oppression is the byproduct of capitalism and exploitation is the method through which the ruling class robs the worker of surplus value. Rape is an individual affair, in contrast to other institutional oppression (like sexism and racism) but is the result of institutional inequality - stemming from the family structure, legal system and other social institutions that treat women as secondary citizens.
Many cases of sexual violence go unreported. If they are reported, then many times the police do not pursue it. The whole structure exists to support the exploiter due to the nature of capitalism itself
Rapes occur all over the world and are entirely related to power. Where the power roles change, in certain conditions, so does the gender of abused: male prisoners in juvenile prisons are abused predominantly by female staff in the US, according to a peer reviewed study in 2014.
So, by the analogy of the PM, are we implying here that juveniles in such prisons wear seductive clothing that drives the female staff crazy? Or is there something more serious and structural to be considered? In the same way, the state doesn’t seem to bat an eye towards students in seminaries and transgenders who are subject to abuse of such powerful men in our societies.
Many cases of sexual violence go unreported. If they are reported, then many times the police do not pursue it. The whole structure exists to support the exploiter due to the nature of capitalism itself.
Many liberals have set feet to expose the government and the clergy’s hypocrisy. Many are turning to the analysis of how seminaries work and nurture misogynistic ideas. While the class analysis and the effects of such ideas are close to the truth, but the whole analysis seemed reductionist.
In fact, the misogyny bred in those madrassahs is not only because of older interpretations of the religion but also because it serves a bigger purpose. The contribution of the madrassah to the political arena holds importance in this regard and with the state intervention in the past three decades, madrassahs have been very much politicized their recruits as jihadists.
In the wake of liberalisation under Musharraf’s time and the War on Terror, the madrassahs faced a crisis. Indeed, the subsequent economic crisis has led to a power vacuum. The misogyny is one of the tools exercised by such class to enforce power - deriving from the might of divine interpretation. The cause of homosexuality hinted to be because of less exposure to women is again very reductionist. Such tendencies have a long history, way before the British colonised India. A skim through the works such as autobiography of Mir Taqi Mir would highlight the prevalence of such tendencies within the pre-colonial society where madrassahs functioned as educational institutions for bureaucracy. So, it is not solely due to the less exposure of women that such tendencies exist. Indeed, our focus must be on the nature of exploitation that exist in educational institutions and madrassahs. The exploitation that exists because of the nature of capitalism.