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A
horrifying vision of a Pakistan being eaten up from the inside by a
cancer named intolerance. Better warn all your non-Pakistani friends
to think twice before boarding a plane in this direction.
"CRYING
SHAME"
From
The News (May 25th, 2000)
"Eve-teasing
is one of the foulest of all social evils, but, regrettably,
it is also the most rampant. But what happened in Lahore to
a group of foreign women is much worse than common indecency:
it is an affront to the fundamentals of civility, violation
of law and a matter of national shame. Five Dutch women were
harassed, physically touched and molested by a crowd who happened
to have found the luckless ladies in the vicinity of the canal
in Lahore. Leaving their senses and clothes behind and wearing
just shorts and shamelessness, the half-naked men got after
the women and made a sport of physically abusing them till they
were rescued by someone driving by the scene of the crime.
The account of the victims, among whom one is a journalist,
of how it all started and finished with one of them lying on
the ground and the rest kicking and punching to ward off what
had the making of a gang rape sums up the decomposition of the
established moral codes and rules of general behavior. The mere
sight of females was enough for a whole bunch of men and boys
to volunteer a fall from grace and put on a most vulgar display
of basic instincts. And yet the same men and others like them,
in their own homes are fearsome enforcers of moral codes on
their wives, daughters, mothers, sisters, always ever-willing
to die or kill to protect the honor of these women. It is this
horrid hypocrisy that explains the perversion of minds and underlies
almost all embarrassing incidents of unbecoming conduct on the
part of men.
The Lahore canal episode also lays bare the hollow root of the
oft-heard claim of our cultural superiority to the developed
countries. The incident could well have taken place in downtown
Washington or New York or London, where groups of raw youth
stalk women and are prone to assaulting them. But even there,
the chance of anyone, no matter how criminal-minded and frustrated,
manhandling women in broad daylight will be rare. It is the
dishonorable distinction of the canal bathers in Lahore that
they had their "fun" at high-noon and at a public
place. It matters not that the cost of the fun is damage to
our image as a nation. For if it did the law enforcers in the
city would have done a little better than to respond by shrugging
their shoulders and saying that there is little they can do
to control lewdness by the canal.
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Following
are excerpts from the Press on the incident that took place in Lahore,
not in AD 428 but in the year 2000, in broad daylight in one of the
busiest spots of the city with hoards of men being witness - watching
participating, but not helping.
It was a Sunday Afternoon, not long after the Muezzin's call for afternoon
prayer that five Dutch women were "assaulted and molested by a
mob of bathers on the FC College service lane, running along the City
(Lahore) canal.
The shameful incident, which took place on Sunday afternoon in broad
daylight, lasted over 15 minutes. Astonishingly, no body from among
the passersby or onlookers stopped the crowd of young men attempting
to assault the girls, until two people riding a white car came to their
rescue. This in itself is a frightening reflection of the mentality
of the people, most of whom seemed willing to merely look on even as
women were subjected to the most humiliating treatment.
"We were molested and sexually assaulted by several scantily dressed
bathers in the daylight," one of the victims aged between 20 and
32 said, requesting anonymity. Three of the girls were in Shalwar Kameez
while two wore trousers and shirts.
"We were heading towards Ferozepur Road along the service lane
near FC College. First we were surrounded by about 20 small kids aged
between 8 and 12 years, who had been bathing in the canal. They began
to shout and yell at us, mainly to tease us...but later, dozens more
people, mostly in their 20's and 30's started to gather around, some
of them first at a distance of six yards. They then came closer, having
surrounded us, and many of them began touching our breasts, our backs
and other parts of our bodies, apparently our of frustration."
The woman added that some of the boys "misbehaved" in front
of them, while the smaller boys continued to shout out taunts, forming
part of a growing mob around them.
The mob didn't take any cash or other articles "we were shocked
to see such a frustration, and actions which clearly demonstrate that".
One of the women visiting her friends who were teaching at a nursing
school for a few months said she had never been a victim of such treatment
in her life. She said she remembered only two faces one in the early
30's and another about 22. "We get scared when we see a flock of
young boys in the streets" she added stating that some of her friends
were returning home shortly, though bravely admitted that it was not
because of this incident but as planned before hand.
The girls also added that they had not bothered to report the incident
to the local police, "I don't trust in police here but we will
inform the Holland Embassy about the incident in black and white."
The incident
sheds grave light on the state of society, the lack of safety and respect
for women and the growing moral degeneration - issues which kids look
to their elders for guidance. Alas, the elders have hardly done much
in the form of setting any sort of example for the youth of the nation
to follow.
In a society where tolerance and consideration to fellow mankind are
diminishing at an alarming if not already relics of the past, can we
still have hope for an enlightened future or have these darkest of dark
ages come to stay for good.
Next week we shall all be joining hands to Celebrate the Joyous occasion
of The Chagai Atomic Blasts. Need more be said?
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