New Delhi: Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s recent remark on women’s clothing has drawn flak on social media. During an interview with the US news website Axios’ journalist Jonathan Swan on HBO on 20 June, Khan said that women wearing “very few clothes” will have an impact on men.
“If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact on the man unless they are robots. It’s common sense,” Khan said.
His remarks triggered outrage on social media, with several Pakistani women sharing tweets on what they were wearing when they got harassed or molested.
One woman narrated how she was harassed while she was at the holiest place in Islam — the Holy Kaaba, and was wearing an Abaya (a long robe which is worn over garments and covers the whole body).
“A loose abaya scarf and dark glasses to cover my black eye. Was standing in the sehan of Kaaba a guy groped me… He was still in ahram,” another Twitter user wrote.
Another woman shared multiple instances while she was dressed in a salwar-kameez and a chadar when she was harassed.
A loose abaya scarf and dark glasses to cover my black eye. Was standing in the sehan of Kaaba a guy groped me… He was in ahram still
Same attire, black eye performing tawaf pinched on the backside guy smirked when I turned
Same attire barely escaped a man in masjid e nabwi https://t.co/NSYlAMGhXm
— Rabia Ayub (@RabiaAyub9) June 21, 2021
School uniform shalwar kameez with a proper Chadar that was bigger than me on the road Ealing home from the stop; An abaya with a naqab in one of the city's biggest malls;, shalwar kameez and a Chadar covering my head while outside my nephew's school.
— Sarah Salahuddin (@sarahsdin) June 21, 2021
Meanwhile, Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) women lawmakers hit out at the opposition parties and the “liberal brigade” on social media for criticising Khan.
Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wazir, flanked by Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice Barrister Maleeka Ali Bukhari and Parliamentary Secretary for Planning, Development and Reforms Kanwal Shauzab, at a press conference, said that “liberally corrupt goons” shouldn’t dare to be their leader.
The lawmakers went on to describe Khan as the “genuine symbol of women empowerment” in the country.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan is the genuine symbol of women empowerment as for the first time in the country’s history, five women parliamentarians have been made cabinet members… Along with them 12 parliamentary secretaries are women including Maleeka Bukhari, Kanwal Shauzab and Aliya Hamza Malik who represent their ministries in the parliament,” Gul Wazir said.
Also read: Banned Pakistan journalist Hamid Mir apologises & Imran Khan wants all his govt events in Urdu
Pakistani woman on Forbes’ Next 1000 List
Mariam Nusrat, a Pakistani woman has made it to the Forbes’ ‘Next 1000 List’, a first of its kind initiative that celebrates bold and inspiring entrepreneurs. The list includes start-ups and businesses with less than $10 million in revenue.
In a statement Friday, the magazine said: “An entrepreneur’s journey is not linear — it is filled with a series of twists and turns; defeat is a natural part of the process, but what differentiates entrepreneurs on the Forbes Next 1000 List is their resilience in the face of adversity”.
Founder of Gaming Revolution for Inspiring Development (GRID), Mariam holds an Economics degree from both Lahore University of Management Sciences and the George Washington University in the United States. Through this start-up, she has been leading a team of game developers and designers to create low-cost mobile games.
Mariam who currently lives in Virginia, US, founded GRID in 2013. Her team has so far created eight portfolio games in four languages on various topics — health pandemics, animal welfare, reproductive health, climate change, etc.
Headscarf prank lands YouTuber in jail
A Pakistani YouTuber landed in jail over his prank intimidating women without a headscarf.
Khan Ali, who runs a YouTube account — ‘Vele Loog Khan Ali’ — uploaded a video titled ‘Dopatta loo Prank part 2’ on 2 May, in which he plays a prank on random women outside a university in Gujranwala, harassing them to wear a headscarf.
Ali can also be heard yelling at women, even getting slapped by a few of them. At the start of the clip, Ali says the video isn’t a prank but a message and asks viewers to tell “their mother, sisters, and daughters to wear a dupatta”.
The video didn’t go down well with women, and a complaint was filed against Ali at Gujranwala police station. Gujranwala police even tweeted a photo of handcuffed Ali.
ایس پی صدر عبدالوہاب کی زیر نگرانی تھانہ گکھڑ منڈی پولیس کا فوری ایکشن۔
پرینگ ویڈیوکے نام پر عورتوں کی تذلیل کرنے والا ملزم گرفتار۔مقدمہ درج۔
عوام الناس کی عزت و آبرو کی حفاظت اولین ترجیج ہے۔(سٹی پولیس آفیسر سرفراز احمد فلکی ) pic.twitter.com/DyM0oYvZBi
— CPO Gujranwala (@CPOGujranwala) June 17, 2021