It’s not a new phenomenon that bike-riders have harassed women passersby walking on the streets: be it a maid, a modern-day woman, a burqa-clad female or even a school girl; as long as she’s a woman, she shall be harassed.
People ask women to stay in their ‘safe zones’, and not travel ‘late at night’, because perhaps that kind of safety has been crowned to the men only.
If you have female genitalia, you’re in grave danger driving alone at night, or worse, walking alone at night (which most of us women wouldn’t dare to).
Shameen Raza, a resident of Islamabad, recently experienced such harassment in the apparently safe community of Islamabad while on her way back home in her car.
Her Facebook Status:
Unprovoked & randomly, a man can do whatever he wants in the streets of Pakistan, because he knows no one will hold him accountable for his actions.
These men make the streets of our country dirty with their sick-mindedness and their frustrated, disturbed minds. The only reason it is safe for a man to walk home alone at night, and not for a woman is the lack of punishment for such criminals.
Although there have been recent laws passed to ensure the safety of women who are a target of domestic violence or sexual harassment, rape, we still have a long way to go before we finally have men who keep to themselves while women walk, drive on the roads.
If a tragic incident like this could affect the young, independent girl of Islamabad then what are the non-independent, uneducated women facing in their lives? I dread to even think on the terms.
