Prime Minister Imran Khan's comments on rape have landed him in hot water once again. This time, he was responding to a query by Jonathan Swan of Axios for HBO, who asked the prime minister whether comments he made earlier in the year about rape could be construed as victim blaming.
The PM called the attacks nonsense, stating “I said the concept of purdah. The concept of purdah is: avoid temptation in the society.” He elaborated on Pakistan’s cultural context, stating, “We don’t have discos here, we don’t have nightclubs. So, it is a completely different society, way of life here. So if you raise temptation in society to a point, and all these young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences in the society.”
Khan had answered a host of foreign policy questions regarding the United States role in Afghanistan, the use of Pakistan's soil for any CIA operation and why he didn't speak up for China's Uighur Muslims like he did for Kashmiri Muslims. Swan then moved onto Khan's comments on rape.
“Do you think that what women wear has any effect – that that’s part of this ‘temptation’?” he asked.
Khan replied stating that it is common sense that if a woman is wearing “very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men unless they are robots.”
When Swan pushed further to learn whether the Prime Minister believed the clothes could lead to sexual violence, Khan reiterated his point. “It depends which society you live in. If in a society people haven’t seen that sort of thing, it will have an impact on them.” He commented on the need for cultural context, demanding that whatever is in our culture should be accepted by everyone else.
Once again, Imran Khan has come under fire for his comments. Many users on social media expressed displeasure and frustration at his statements.
The well-known jurist who also co-hosts her show on YouTube called “Aurat Card” Reema Omer tweeted,
“This is the interview Earlier, PTI spokespersons argued the PM never attributed women’s dress to sexual violence but was speaking generally about pardah for both men and women Here the PM leaves no room for any doubt (or spin) A pity the outcry earlier had no impact on him”
Sociologist professor at LUMS Nida Kirmani also shared her views, saying,
“The PM repeating his victim-blaming narrative, which paints Pakistani men as uncontrollable beasts for an international audience & yet people like myself are accused of hating men & giving the country a bad name”.
User Laaleen brought up how sexual assault is not limited to skimpily dressed women and others fall victim to it too,
“Hi Imran, how skimpily dressed are the little children that maulvis rape for years at madrassahs? How skimpily dressed are women in burqa who get assaulted in the street & at home? How utterly deluded you sound. Don't make excuses for him, this is not the 1st time he's said this.”
But many people felt the Prime Minister's quote were taken out of context.
Dr. Arslan Khalid, Imran Khan’s focal Digital Media person defended Khan saying: “Again selective and out of context tweeting of what he actually said by subtracting the part where he talked about what kind of society we live in and abt the sexual frustration in the society”
The academic Arsalan Khan brought another perspective to the conversation, writing:
“Besides the misogyny, there's also a fundamental elitism. The implication is that while people like him who have been exposed to the West are able to control themselves in the face of temptation, 'the masses' are not.”
This is not the first time that Khan has faced backlash for comments about rape. In April, he made similar comments on live TV about the increasing number of sexual assault and rape cases.
Khan said, “What is the concept of purdah? It is to stop temptation. Not every man has willpower. If you keep on increasing vulgarity, it will have consequences.” He maintained that laws and the Constitution are not enough to prevent rape. Instead, society needs to work on the issue by increasing purdah and reducing vulgarity. These comments led to outrage on social media. Hundreds of people demanded that the Prime Minister apologize for his statements and stop spreading the message that rape and sexual assault are the faults of the victims.
