Disclaimer*: The articles shared under 'Your Voice' section are sent to us by contributors and we neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of any facts stated below. Parhlo PInk will not be liable for any false, inaccurate, inappropriate or incomplete information presented on the website. Read our disclaimer.

“I failed to make his face, but I saw those hands creeping up to me and those eyes that are white were accentuated in the poorly lit room. Those eyes were the eyes of a predator ready to rip its prey apart. The sides of his mouth were producing foam like he was salivating. I crumpled in the embrace of my arms like it’s my only asylum. I was panting, gasping for air, but all I could inhale was that soul-crushing fear. I tried to feel my face with my hands but the more he was moving forward the more I started to shed my skin. That very instant of utter helplessness, I wished for death. Something cringed in my chest and I was happy that this is the end…”

Even in the bone freezing nights of January, she was drenched in sweat, she woke up to a horrifying nightmare that she’d been having lately. She felt gagged and liquid words rolled down her cheeks writing the story of ineffable misery. She quietly whispered under sobs, ‘Is anyone there?’ but her voice resonated and came back unrequited. She laid there in silence burning like an ember in agony when that incident automatically started playing itself like a kaleidoscopic flick.

22 November 2015, just another beautiful morning of early winters, a day full of laughter and little cheerful moments. She was a boarder. She came back to dorms to an empty fridge and a growling stomach, starving to death she asked her roommate if she wanted to grab a bite before turning in – She being so outgoing didn’t give it a second thought and hailed yes. All clad in black cloaks, they went to the nearest market, had a quick meal and decided to leave early as the night was about to fall, and the streets of Islamabad are deemed as dead allies in winters. University wasn’t that far away from the market, so they decided to walk to their destination not knowing what was lying ahead; would change their whole life.

The carefree promenade that’s signatory to youth could be traced from a distance. Hand in hand, they were stomping on the dried leaves and gossiping about their classmates and some cranky professors. Road lights were creating their silhouettes on the concrete trail. Mid yapping, she missed a heartbeat, she sniffed hard like she was smelling danger in the air, condemning her over-concerned gut, she kept moving ahead.

Suddenly, she felt that someone was right behind her, she turned her head to the left imagining that her friend was lagging behind, but to her shock, she was a step ahead of her. Before she could even make a sound, that giant man clasped her in his grip.

She wanted to fight him off but his embrace was strong and beastly under the influence of his carnival rage. She saw her soul leaving her body when the screams of her friends brought her back to reality and suddenly she started to scream as well, it was more like a cry for help. Baffled by the screaming, his grips loosened around her body and he started to run. She kept on shouting until she felt a salt blob blocking her throat and she could not feel anything, she was numb. She was numb by the display of carnival greed and monstrous harassment. Her friend barely dragged her and stuffed her in a cab and they both reached the university.

That was not merely a man. That was a phenomenon. A venomous serpent rendering every girl out there from trusting the peers of his gender. He was the personification of the taboo that no one talks about and everyone keeps pushing under the rug like it doesn’t even exist.

She was physically abused that night but it stayed with her for the rest of her life, making her question every man to come in her life regardless of their reality. All she saw were those two hands approaching her, ripping her apart and all she could hear were those arrhythmic breaths sending chills down her spine and her muffled voice mumbling under dying breath…. ‘Is anyone there to guard me? To talk about sexual abuse? To tell my parents that my dignity is intact? It wasn’t the fault of my attire that I was attacked, it was the sociopathy’!