It’s the year 2018 and Hollywood is up in arms with campaigns that safeguard women from sexual harassment at workplaces; but when it comes to women that are closer to home, it looks like we haven’t moved an inch from the barbaric monstrosity of the Stone Ages.
Our hearts collectively dropped to the pits of our stomachs, as we came across yet another gruesome act of sexual assault against a woman, this time from Pakistan. A Twitter user who goes by the name Fam Shereen took to the platform to share a heinous account of rape that took place.
After what felt like a brick to my face, the questions, ripe with fury, started pouring in: How did the family not hear her? Where were they when she was in pain and hurting so much? Why didn’t they come to her rescue? And that’s when the next series of tweets shattered whatever little faith I had in human beings, on this planet.
Of course, what followed next was the search for details on how the attacker was handed over to the authorities, and what severe punishment awaited the man who thought he could get away with a crime as horrific as this. But, there was no justice in sight.
No matter how many times I read the tweet to myself, the sheer magnitude of the crime refused to sink in. How mentally disturbed must you be, to take the life of a woman by sexually assaulting her, that too when you have vowed to be her partner, love and care for her, in the bonds of holy matrimony?
More importantly, women are told repeatedly to seek assurance in the safe haven of their family and loved ones; and this is what you do, turn your back on the man who viciously attacked your daughter and harmed her on her wedding night?
The time has never been more right to speak up against the atrocities committed against women in our society and focus on raising young men to respect women, just as much as raising young women to fight injustice with all their might.
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