by SHAZIA NAWAZ
If you ask me, it is not difficult to understand. But yet people act like they do not understand it. This problem in Pakistan is like a white elephant in the room that no one sees. No, I am not talking about terrorism. We all see that elephant. We just insist that it is a cat.
I am talking about sexual harassment of women on the streets of Pakistan. It was a way of life for us. Whenever we had to go to school or college, either we had to walk in form of groups or my brother or father had to accompany us. Whenever no one was available to chaperone us to our school, we stayed home. Why would my mother not let us go out alone? Because we were not safe being alone on the street. You see everyday countless girls going to places in form of groups and with chaperones. Do you know what happens if a girl is left alone behind accidentally? A man comes out of nowhere and starts walking really close to her saying things like, “sano ve lay chal nal vay(take me with you)” or “Aj tay sano lift kara day-yo (please pay some attention to me today)” and things of that nature. Then that girl starts trembling inside that big chadar(shawl) and she starts walking really fast and of course if no one else is around, man too starts walking really fast with her. When that girl gets home, cries, and tells her mother about the incident, her mother says, “Did I not tell you to wait for your brother to come home and take you? You wanted to hear all this and this is why you went outside alone.” How many of you were thinking the same thing? That she should not have gone out alone?
LUBP for more
via IAOJ