The use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the victim-blaming of the harassment victim, thereby creates a society that disregards women’s rights and safety. Even though the employee from the bank in Islamabad has been arrested on Saturday night, people seem to be blaming the victim now.
Earlier, on Saturday, a video had gone viral on the Internet showing the incident of sexual harassment. A top Pakistani bank’s employee was caught on video groping a woman.
On Saturday night, the harasser got arrested and fired from his workplace. Moreover, the Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari confirmed it on Sunday in an update to the Islamabad bank harassment case.
Mazari’s tweet came a few hours after a video went viral on social media. In the video, a man, identified as Usman Gohar and likely in his mid-30s, was caught red-handed sexually harassing a woman. He groped her as she stood by his desk, and then took his seat as if nothing happened.
In addition to this, she also shared a picture of the man, with his face blurred and posing alongside a police officer after his arrest.
The Twittersphere now blames the victim for not speaking up
Also…
These people really need to know this
This attitude is unacceptable.
Pakistan is a highly patriarchal society, and harassment has been a prevailing issue for a long time. Be it street-calling or workplace harassment, the stigma is prevalent. Ideally, everyone could go to work without having to worry about harassment. But if we talk realistically, the idea seems too far fetched.
Ironically, the same private commercial bank recently, in a new dress code, made compulsory for female employees to wear ‘Hijab’ and ‘loose-fitting dress’. While on the other hand, the bank put nothing such so-called ‘cultural’ or ‘religious binding’ for male employees.
It received massive backlash on social media for being ‘discriminatory’ and ‘sexist’. And now this. Earlier, the motorway gang-rape episode left women infuriated, and feeling let down, and even more unsafe
It also demonstrated that, despite a swelling women’s rights movement in Pakistan, there are miles to go before women are treated as equals and human beings.
Over the last couple of days, scores of women on social media have highlighted exactly how dangerous this victim-blaming mentality is. And yet somehow, our people continue doing so.
Even women in health care live through the torture of the toxic culture of misogyny. Earlier this year, a doctor from Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in Karachi came forward to expose the ‘mafia’ culture of the hospital.
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