Pakistan - A woman’s dress is never an invitation for sexual assault

Uzma Kiani

The state needs to work on educating the society on the concept of consent.

Your female family members’ outfits do not provoke you. Hence, this argument does not hold up anymore that a women’s dress incites men into sexually assault. Or that women should cover themselves ‘properly’, while going out or even when they are staying home – if not, they are ‘asking for’ trouble.

You never allow your mental frames to revisit ideas that are instilled into your mind through either religious doctrine or cultural concepts.

It is simply horrifying to put the responsibly of sexual violence on women’s attire rather than the perpetrators of this appalling crime. The notion represents women (including your mother, sister and daughter) as something along the following lines:-

“I am a woman and I came out wearing this dress with the intention to be sexually attacked.”

Those, either on ethical or religious grounds, favoring this argument are actually aiding the misconception that women themselves incite men to assault. And that women’s clothing is responsible, if men get out of control.

The society continues to rigidly hold women and girls responsible for sexual crimes against them. As a result, such a mindset is disarming women against following their natural likes and dislikes. It also chains them from liberation and emancipation in other walks of life.

Anyone who advocates the idea that women should be restricted to home, due to the fear of sexual violence, is fueling sexist attitudes and aiding violence against women.

Educational institutions i.e. schools, colleges, universities, madrassas, and mosques as well as state institutions, including the parliament, should underline the idea of consent in all forms of education. This is pivotal to curb sexual violence and to defy the misconception that men get out of control when they see girls and women roaming or working around in any particular kind of clothing.

It is damaging for the women who are working to meet both ends. This is particularly harmful for single mothers and girls who don’t have male counterparts to feed them.

This notion, or any variation thereof, forms myths and misconceptions about sexual violence. These are manmade set patterns of thought, restricted in boxes of culture, concepts, notions, and values that favor the culprit and shackle the victim, i.e. women, in order to keep them under control.

There is another reason behind such discriminatory mindset: the absence of notions that liberate women in our society. There are thinking patterns and mindset that limit your feelings and behavior, one way or the other. Such thought process should be discouraged. And as stated above, religious and social bodies need to work on consent education.

Most importantly, women should help other women in building up moral courage. We need to stand together and be one another’s strength.