Adil Najam
Sometimes you see a headline that just stops you in your tracks and makes you wonder. I saw such a headline in The Daily Times today: “At Least 100 Rapes in Karachi a Day.“
The story is reporting a statement by Dr. Zulfiqar Siyal, Additional Police Surgeon (APS), Karachi, where he claims that on average, 100 women are raped in Karachi every 24 hours. It takes a little careful reading to realize that he is not saying that this is the number of actual rapes per day, but that he thinks that it must at least be this much and possibly more. In fact, he himself points out that the number of reported rapes are much less, because of the social stigma of reporting such a crime.
I have no reason to is agree with the statement from the APS. Indeed, I have plenty of reason to believe that he is right and that the real number of rapes must be much more. But I did want to make sure that readers interpret the news report properly. Excerpts from the report.
On average, 100 women are raped every 24 hours in Karachi city alone, and a majority of them are working women, said Additional Police Surgeon (APS) Dr Zulfiqar Siyal. A majority of them are working class women or those working as domestic help and are mostly up to 20 years old, he said.
“I am saying with full authority that such a large number of rape cases happen in the city,†he told Daily Times on the sidelines of a discussion on sexual violence organised by the Aurat Foundation on Monday. “But very few rape survivors have the courage to come forward in search of justice.†They do not come forward because of the lengthy medical process and delayed justice system in Pakistan. Only 0.5 percent of cases are reported and the majority (99.5 percent) of survivors prefers to stay silent.
Part of the problem is that there are 11 medico-legal sections in three major public sector hospitals but there are only six women medico-legal officers (WMLOs) for the 18 million population of Karachi. “I am sure that there are more than 100 rape cases every day … but you can gauge how many are reported from the official data which says that during the last eight months (between January to August 2008) a total of 197 cases were reported,†Dr Siyal said. The WMLOs also face a lot of problems, he said. Karachi is also short on hospitals where rape survivors can go through the entire medical examination. “It isn’t just medical facilities but you won’t find a single women police officer (WPO) in any of the total 101 police stations of the city,†he said.
I think that even more important than the number he gives is the point he makes about the majority of rape victims in Karachi being working class women or those working as domestic help, 20 years old or younger. My own sense would be that the situation is not much different anywhere else in Pakistan, whether in terms of the numbers or in terms of who the victims are. I am very glad that the APS has spoken up. I wish more people would, including more victims. However, I can understand all the reasons why many victims do not. As in many societies, this crime persists because the social stigma is attached to the victim even more than the culprit. It is but one aspect of the deeper scars of violence against women.
As with so many other crimes against humanity, rape this a crime that thrives on silence. Not only the silence of the victim, but the silence of society. When, as in this case, the silence is broken, one feels empowered. One hopes that others will break the silence too.
Also see:
Silent Against Domestic Violence
Violence Against Women: Breaking Down Walls
Being Woman in Pakistan
Celebrating the Lives of Pakistani Women
Changing Rape Laws in Pakistan
No Molvee, nor any leader ever had tried or even think of this problem. Where is DR(if he is) Amir Liaqat? He can propogate for killing people, can’t he say something about it?
About reporting a rape from the victim, will it make any difference? few years before there was Vina Hayat case in which she herself pointed out the person(Irfanullah Marwat) who was son in law of one of the presidents of Islamic Republic of Pakistan(Ghulam Ishaq Khan) and was the education minister in sind during Mushraf tenure.
Vina Hayat launched the FIR, his poor old father(Saradr Hayat Khan) a very noble and well known person, came himself in media but nothing happend. Our society is dead and selfish nothing positive can be expected. God help us all
Sonya–I believe Ahmed is referring to the sexual needs of men, which express themselves in rape. This is an old argument, that men need sex so much they must rape women if they cannot get it from a willing party (this is also the argument used to justify prostitution–“men’s needs”).
In spite of the antiquity of the argument, it doesn’t hold up very well, given that married men rape, men with attractive and even multiple wives rape, etc. and so forth. Also as you correctly noted, even the presence of the full burka does not restrain harrassers. They are asserting their power over the weak and that is the real issue. Anger/aggression is the real motivation behind sexual assault, as any woman who has experienced it can tell you.
@ Ahmed,
I’m trying to understand why you would put forth a stat that in the very next paragraph you post is revealed to be outdated by a decade and unreliable.
While it may be unfortunate that less than half the men at age 30 in Egypt are unmarried (we can’t be sure, though, since aren’t stats in Egypt wobbly according to Encyclopedia Economist?), their single status or financial challenges give them no right to harass or rape women, covered or not.
Also, what is this “need” you referred to in your post when you said that men ” seek some other methods to suppress the need”? Are you implying that men have a need to rape women which can only be suppressed by harassing them? I’m confused.
A major point of the Menassat article (http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/4510- eye-candy-egyptian-man) was that wearing a veil made no difference and went on to say this:
“Perhaps most shocking of all are the reasons for harassment given by the Egyptian men questioned for the study.
Some said they did it simply out of “boredom.” One man, who admitted to having harassed a woman wearing the full niqab, said the woman must have been either “beautiful” or “hiding something” for her to cover her face completely. ”
Regarding the other site you posted, its information is 6 years old, is listed by total, not capita, conveniently excludes many countries, even major ones (like the one’s in the Middle East and Muslim world we’re talking about), has inconsistent definitions of “rape” across countries, therefore you can’t even compare the numbers, and is done by a UN office, so the numbers are politically skewed. They mean nothing.
In no way did I imply a headscarf or no headscarf has any effect on rape, nor does one’s geographical location. Neither matter so much.
What does matter are the legal institutions in place protecting victims (whether they be religiously influenced or not), the level of enforcement of those institutions (often related to a municipality’s economic situation), protections and services afforded those who come forth, and probably most of all the social norms surrounding rape and harassment (and related to that–acceptable public and private behaviour for men).
It seems to me that you feel it’s an acceptable behavior for a man to treat a women like an object, and that men aren’t responsible for their actions since they have this “need” (to blame the victim, blame the economy, blame Mubarak, blame the West, blame ?).
That’s sad. For men and women. For humanity. I thought we were better than that.
This is terrible realization of something so rampant in the city! 100 cases per day? How many of them get reported? How can this go on? who are these women? If karachi alone produces a figure of 36,500 women per year, what is the country’s figure? Somebody do something about it
@Sonya
Furthermore please refer to the link
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap-crime-ra pes
A question:
Does lack of headscarf prevent rape? If so why western countries, given they are enlightened, are even in the table on this website?