In an interview with PBS Newshour, PM Khan asserted that anyone who commits rape is solely responsible for the act. The victim is never responsible.
In the interview, PM Khan clarified his earlier statements where he said that women dressing provocatively 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,” PM Khan previously said during his Axios interview.
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His statements received immense backlash from people in Pakistan.
However, this time around, PM Khan states that people took his earlier statements out of context.
“My statements were deliberately taken out of context. Never would I say such a stupid thing where a person who is raped is somehow responsible. It’s always the rapist that is responsible,” Imran Khan says in his interview to PBS Newshour.
He explained that his earlier comments were talking about Pakistan’s sharp rise in sex crimes. Sex crimes do not only include women but children as well.
PM Khan further elaborated on his use of the word “pardah.” According to Islam, pardah is not only clothes and is not only restricted to women. Pardah is for men as well.
“It [pardah] means bringing the temptation down in society. This is what I was talking about,” PM Khan clarified.
Responding to whether the importance of Islam in the country stops the government from taking a stronger stance on violence against women, PM Khan said, “Absolutely not.”
According to PM Khan, Pakistan treats women with far more respect and dignity than other countries.
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While comparing the sexual assault cases with the rest of the world, PM Khan thinks cases of rape in Pakistan are “minuscule.”
“As far as a woman’s dignity and respect go, I can say after going all over the world, this society [Pakistan] gives more respect and dignity to women,” he concluded.
Violence against women in Pakistan
According to a Human Rights Watch estimate, 70-90% of women in Pakistan suffered some form of abuse.
Since 2015, Pakistan has reported 22000 cases of rape, with an average of 11 cases reported per day. The conviction rate is 0.3%.
Read more: Conviction rate in rape cases under 3% in Pakistan: report
As per Madadgar Helpline, 93% of women in Pakistan experienced sexual violence in public places. 56% of the calls to them are from women while 13% are from men.
Due to all the problems faced by women in Pakistan, the Global Gender Gap Index ranks Pakistan as the 3rd worst country in the world based on political empowerment, economic participation, educational attainment, health, and survival. This is below Saudi Arabia and Iran.