KARACHI (Web Desk) - A young man says he was molested by a group of women in public on Tariq Road, one of the leading shopping areas in Karachi.
Saad Ilamdin, a social media blogger, shares his story with everyone to make people aware of the fact that women are not the sole victims of harassment in any country or society.
“Men get targeted too,” Saad wrote on Parhlo.com.
“No one believes men. They get mocked and ridiculed beyond measure. No one considers it a serious enough issue.
“Yet, I’m stating my story so people are aware that their young male kids need as much protection as females,” he added.
Saad Ilamdin.–Twitter
According to Saad, he was at Tariq Road on Sunday after work, looking for few things to buy. “You all know how crowded Tariq Road becomes after 6 pm, especially during Eid season. I was wandering around looking at shops when I saw a group of females approaching."
Saad describes walking along the packed sidewalk, and encountering a group of girls.
“I moved to the side and stood still, out of respect so that the group could pass by. But unfortunately, one of the females moved her hand along my waist line!"
Saad goes on to say that one of women in the group also "groped him hard" and "walked away laughing".
He describes being rattled by the incident. “I felt an immense amount of disgust and repulsion which made me leave the place immediately,” he wrote.
Later on Sunday, he took the issue to social media and posted a tweet about what happened to him.
However, his post was not received well by all quarters. While many Twitter users condemned the incident, others didn't take him very seriously, calling him a "lucky lad".
Whatever people on Twitter think about him, Saad also has a message. He says he wants people to know that sexual harassment is a common problem, and that being male or female, or looking or dressing a certain way does not bring it on or justify it in any way.
He continues: “The worst part was that I couldn’t do anything at that moment....Even if I had tried to stop them, they would have put the blame on me for harassing them, due to which nearby shopkeepers and other passerby would have beaten me to pulp," describing the stigma surrounding men in crowded places in Pakistan, which left him with no one to seek help from.
“The thing is, that the society we live in, doesn’t recognize that men can be victims as well. But when faced with such situations, they are much [more] helpless than the women,” he wrote in his article.
