Prime Minister Imran Khan has landed himself in trouble after some ‘rape apologist’ remarks in a recent interview with Jonathan Swan for Axios, where he once again victim blamed females and their dressing resulting in rape incidents.
In the interview, the prime minister was asked about the epidemic of sexual violence and rape in Pakistan. The interviewer also quoted PM Imran Khan as saying that increasing vulgarity and women’s dressing was a cause of increase in sexual abuse cases in the country.
“Do you think what women wear has any effect? That this is part of that temptation?” asked Jonathan Swan to which Primer Minister Imran Khan replied, “If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact, it will have an impact on the men, unless they’re robots.”
This has sparked massive criticism online as netizens are now calling the Prime Minister a ‘rape apologist’ instead of blaming the real cause of the problem, which is the rapist themselves.
Anchorperson: You were accused of rape victim blaming, how do you respond to that?
— PTI USA Official (@PTIOfficialUSA) June 21, 2021
PM Imran Khan: It is #SuchNonsense
PM talked about different societies having different norms #PMIKonHBOMax pic.twitter.com/tOSgs1AuOc
It bears mentioning that many people do agree with the prime minister regarding the matter, however, this does not explain the several cases of sexual abuse and rape against males in Pakistan.
In a recent incident, a religious cleric has been in the headlines after sexually abusing a male student at a seminary for several years while his sons blackmailed and threatened to kill the victim if he came public regarding the ordeal.
Read more: Mufti Aziz ur Rehman Confesses to Sexually Abusing Student.
There have been several other cases where minor girls have been raped as well and that also does not explain the prime minister’s stance regarding females wearing less being the cause of rape in Pakistan.
Minor girls as young as a few months old are rape, killed and thrown away like objects without a thought by these rapists yet Prime Minister Imran Khan continues to defend rapists and blame the victims of this heinous crime.
If it was truly a matter of females wearing less that lead to rape than these minor girls should not end up falling victim to such crimes, however, the prime minister fails to recognize the real problem, ‘the rapists being responsible for rape.’
Here are some of the reactions from Twitter as people trend hashtag #RapeApologistSelectedPM and call Prime Minister Imran Khan a ‘rape apologist.’
Disgusted. Appalled. Outraged. Strongly condemnable. No, Mr PM Khan, women clothing is NOT responsible for temptation leading to rape/assault/violence. ABSOLUTELY NOT!
— Gharidah Farooqi (@GFarooqi) June 21, 2021
This is victim blaming and giving a pass to men. Don’t insult victims. Don’t justify rape as temptation.
It's also the last line. Not having sexual violence be committed against women is somehow seen as cultural imperialism by Khan sahab. https://t.co/2h6sSqcWKh
— Shehzad Ghias Shaikh (@Shehzad89) June 21, 2021
It's also the last line. Not having sexual violence be committed against women is somehow seen as cultural imperialism by Khan sahab. https://t.co/2h6sSqcWKh
— Shehzad Ghias Shaikh (@Shehzad89) June 21, 2021
Dear PM @ImranKhanPTI stop humanising the rapists, abusers and harassers and stop objectifying the victims. You may not realise it but when you repeatedly stress upon the clothes of a woman as a cause for temptation leading to sexual violence you do exactly that.
— M. Jibran Nasir 🇵🇸 (@MJibranNasir) June 21, 2021
No Excuses for Rape 😣
— Syeda Mizrah Jilani 🌞 (@MizrahJilani) June 21, 2021
End Of Discussion 👇#RapeApologistSelectedPM pic.twitter.com/wtJkJt8vtT
Mr Prime Minister, please educate yourself… We can't blame women for every single thing!
— Ahmad⁷+⁸+¹👻🤝 (@AhmiStan2002) June 21, 2021
24:30:
"Tell the believing men that they should reduce/lower (يغضوا) their gaze/vision and guard their private parts…"
#RapeApologistSelectedPM pic.twitter.com/JCIT2hl6J4
Most people think rape is caused because of females themselves but fail to understand that these crimes are committed because of sick minded individuals who also rape males thus proving that wearing less isn’t the solution to the problem.
We already mentioned Mufti Aziz ur Rehman, the religious cleric who raped his student and another recent incident also includes a Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) student in Islamabad getting gang-raped by International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) students.
Read more: IIUI Students Gang-Rape QAU Student.
Let us know what you think about the matter in the comments below.
