Pakistan's leader sparks protests by blaming women 'wearing very few clothes' for sexual assaults
Pakistan’s prime minister is facing protests and calls for a public apology after suggesting there would be fewer sexual assaults if women dressed more modestly.
In an interview with Axios earlier this week, Imran Khan was asked about whether there was a “rape epidemic” in Pakistan, where advocates believe that a large number of assaults go unreported. “If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the man unless they are robots. I mean, it’s common sense,” he responded.
Women in Pakistan responded by sharing photographs of the “modest” clothing that they were wearing when they were sexually harassed, as well as anecdotes about inappropriate behavior they have encountered — such as unwanted touching — even when conservatively dressed in traditional headscarves and shalwar kameez. At a protest Saturday in Karachi, women were encouraged to bring a piece of clothing that they or an acquaintance had been wearing when they were subjected to sexual violence.
Link to tweet
“This is dangerously simplistic and only reinforces the common public perception that women are ‘knowing’ victims and men ‘helpless’ aggressors,” the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and more than a dozen other civil society groups said in a statement. “For the head of government — a government that claims to defend the rights of women and vulnerable groups — to insist on this view is simply inexcusable.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/06/26/imran-khan-rape-clothing/
= new reply since forum marked as read
