Harassment in Pakistan comes in different aspects. It could be done on the streets, in your educational institutes and even in your homes. The fact that this has become such a normality is alarming for the women in Pakistan. Why has walking on the streets, traveling in public alone, for a girl, has become such an issue in the first place?

Just recently, another case of street harassment surfaced the internet where a girl who was harassed while traveling in a rickshaw (alone) in Lahore from Ghazi Chowk to Ameer Chowk. She chose to make it public and let everyone be aware of it and be a support for all the other women out there who have been harassed. In this case, the girl’s cousin worked for the intelligence and was easier to find out who the guy was and revealed his public profile.

Little did the harasser know, that social media has become so powerful when it comes to raising your voice, nowadays that such cases are taken very seriously.

Here’s what happened:

“I was in an auto Rickshaw whose one door was removed when a black car, (Number LE- 803 ) came really close to the auto rickshaw and the guy in the car started staring at me in quite a weird manner (which I don’t think I need to explain) while driving. As soon as I could have taken out my phone to record him, he threw a chit on me wrapped in a fifty rupee note and fled away. For a moment, I became totally numb, trying to understand what exactly has happened. The chit contained a phone number.

Meanwhile, my mother’s voice resonated in my head, “beta, apny dhayan se chala kro, kutto ka to kaam ae bhonkna or ghoorna. Koi zarurat nae in se ulajhny ki.” But this time, anger silenced every second thought coming into my mind. Fortunately, I had the contact number of my harasser this time and a cousin brother in intelligence service, to whom I narrated the whole incidence and handed out the chit. He provided me all his information and promised that he’d be punished in the worst way possible.

It’s neither the first nor the only incidence, that I happened to suffer through. Most of us (usually women) suffer multiple incidences of sexual harassment and with much more intensity, ‘silently’. The silence contains many fears like: 

1. Meri parhayi/nokri rok di jayegi.

2. Meri shadi kra di jayegi. 

3. Agar me ne reaction dya, to mery sath mazeed kch bura ho skkta ae.

4. Mjh pe taizab phenka ja skta

 5. Mery in-laws kia sochengy?

All these fears originate from the lack of support from the family. I have a long list of women who contacted me to help them fight against their harassers without ‘involving their families’. Because families fail to even acknowledge the very idea that any such thing could happen to their daughter, and if they find their daughter complaining of any such thing, they’d simply tame their daughters either by increasing the layer of clothes on her body or by engaging her inside the home etc. 

In this case, my family, as expected, snubbed me that I should let it go saying that; “at least, you are safe.” (I wanted to ask them, would they have spoken if something bigger had happened? then why not now? What about the emotional trauma we go through after every such act? What does throwing a chit containing a phone number and a fifty rupee note on a woman mean? When would such derogatory behavior towards women, stop?)

As far as that fifty rupee note is concerned, I am never going to throw away or use that. I will keep this with me as a reminder that one day we all have to move forward with a long lasting yet fruitful struggle to create a new and a much safer world for women and all oppressed communities out there.

P.S. I request all those men and women to stay away from this post who would categorize as some sort of useless personal revenge or defamation without any reason. 
PSS. Stop trivializing any incidence of harassment others face, if you, somehow, are not a victim of sexual harassment because of any privilege.” 

Right after she revealed his images, social media profile, she and her friends started getting apologetic messages from the harasser’s friend asking her to forgive him from his profile making it look like a mere joke as if nothing had happened.

And another…

Just shameful… Isn’t it?

Lastly, here’s what Maria had to say:

Families should support victims. I repeat, families should support victims. Only that can help minimize the frequency of harassment cases of whatever intensity.

 

She also said that there is a group of few female students called “women’s collective” from different institutions who are fighting against such harassment cases. Not are they only fighting for themselves but for others, too. They help those who ask for help without involving their families.

We hope this comes to an end and have someone knock some sense into such men who go out on the streets harassing women for fun and pleasure. Power to all the girls out there!