Pakistan Prime minister Imran Khan has once again blamed women’s clothing for the rise in sexual violence cases in the country. His remarks have drawn massive outrage amongst the females.
In an interview with “Axios on HBO”, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that “if a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they are robots”
"This is cultural imperialism. Whatever is acceptable in our culture, must be accepted everywhere else. It's not," he added.
Imran Khan's comments have attracted huge anger on social media with opposition leaders and journalists expressing their disgust and wrath against the misogynistic ideology.
Anaya Khan, one of the user tweeted, "Imran Khan is rape apologist and hates women,” she had also posted the video of the interview on the microblogging site.
Reema Omer, a legal advisor, South Asia, International Commission of Jurists, expressing her distress over Khan’s victim victim-blaming men, said: "Disappointing and frankly sickening to see PM Imran Khan repeat his victim-blaming regarding reasons for sexual violence in Pakistan Men are not “robots”, he says. If they see women in skimpy clothes, they will get “tempted” and some will resort to rape," Omer said.
Earlier in April, Imran has said "obscenity" s the cause behind thee in sexual violence cases in Pakistan during a live television interview, suggesting women to cover up to prevent temptation.
"This entire concept of purdah is to avoid temptation. Not everyone has the willpower to avoid it," he had stated.
Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person to the PM on digital media, has however called it "sand out of context tweeting".
"Again selective and out of context tweeting of what he actually said by subtracting the part where he talked about what kind of society we live in and about the sexual frustration in the society," Dr Arslan Khalid tweeted.
People in numbers have demanded an apology from the Prime Minister for his every day and also protested against him in Islamabad.
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Pakistan recorded 11 rape incidents every day in November 2020, with more than 22,000 cases reported in the last six years. However, the conviction rate of these crimes is only 0.03 per cent, as only 77 of the accused have been convicted till then.
Pakistan's President Arif Alvi last year in December had approved the Anti-Rape Ordinance 2020 to establish special courts to try cases of sexual abuse of women and children, where the legal proceedings have to be completed within four months.