While speaking about rapes and sexual violence in the country, the former cricketer and captain of Pakistan national cricket team Imran Khan said that women’s clothing affects men and therefore leads to rape. In an interview on HBO, when journalist Jonathan Swan asked if what women wear is part of the ‘temptation, Khan stated, “If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they are robots. It’s just common sense.” Robots!
Not just that, he also called it “cultural imperialism” and added that “whatever is acceptable in our culture, must be accepted everywhere else. It’s not.” Needless to say, this isn’t the first time the PM of the youngest democracy of the world has resorted to victim blaming. Earlier, he had told Geo News, that sexual violence was a product of ‘obscenity.’ He had even cited the ‘purdah’ in Islam. And how it is to remove “temptation” from society because “not everyone has willpower.”
Needless to say, his comments have garnered a lot of flak as it rightly should. Netizens are livid about his stance, at his position of power especially. Many have also pointed out how his problematic comments propagates myths and misconceptions about rape and rape culture. Pakistan Muslim League spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb took to Twitter to reprimand Khan and called him “sick, misogynistic and degenerate”. Even Reema Omer, a legal advisor with the International Commission of Jurists, expressed her disgust and disappointment.
