Sonya Syed

Yes, I am also part of the movement and I think that every woman and also all the men should be too. This wave was generated when renowned Hollywood celebrities Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie and Gwneth Paltrow along with few others came forth to tell their stories of sexual harassment. Since then this little wave created a tornado and many bigwigs were swept away. Charging a man with harassment accusation, especially if he holds power is no easy task for any woman whether she lives in United States or in Pakistan. The first hurdle which women face in every society is victim-shaming, which means, that in some way the woman was responsible to attract the negative attention of a man because as they say, a man is a man- he cannot control his impulses. So it is entirely the duty of a woman to not provoke those impulses. But then my question is, how does a seven year child who was molested two days ago have provoked her perpetrator’s impulses? How do woman covered in their chaadars sitti...

This was not at all how I wanted to start my first post of 2018 but regrettably traumas and painful events have become norm of the day. Once again a seven year old child has been brutally murdered and molested in Kasur, Pakistan. This news had its predecessor few years ago when hundreds of children were molested and their families were blackmailed. Everyone on social media is rightfully protesting to arrest the criminal(s) behind this heinous offence. I don’t think it is a random secluded crime that just happened. Whatever we are seeing today in the form of this news is just the tip of an iceberg, an effect of something that has a profound grave cause lurking in the darkness. The society we proudly present as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has nothing left in it which is either Islamic or republican. We are a society with a torn moral fibre. These kinds of unfortunate events are the direct reflection of not merely state failure, but the failure of humanity. This is...