Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan Says Men Will Be Tempted If Women Wear Short Clothes. Oh FFS!

By Mitali Shah Updated June 21, 2021 6:16 PM

The general mentality of the population dictates that women need to be kept in check in order to reduce crimes against women. It’s rubbish logic but it’s the one the patriarchy has forced us to follow. We’re restricted from going out at night and reprimanded for not sitting, eating, talking and walking like a lady. Whatever that means. People don’t want to understand that when a man sexually assaults a woman, he doesn’t care what clothes she’s wearing or what time of day it is. It simply doesn’t matter. What matters is that the man is responsible for his monstrous choices. But alas, no one wants to listen to reason. And if our leaders, people like the Pakistani PM Imran Khan, can’t seem to wrap their heads around this logic, it’s improbable that others will.

Politicians, in most parts of the world, are known to be misogynistic and chauvinistic creatures with a mentality that is stuck in the 1900s. They make sexist comments and pass remarks about women like we’re common commodities. Worst of all though, they often indulge in victim shaming. That’s exactly what Pakistan’s Prime Minister has been continuously doing and we’re sick of it. This time, hiding behind the pretext of tradition and culture, he has claimed that women and their short clothes are responsible for enticing and tempting men. So, men are completely absolved of all blame? Does that man have absolutely no shame? We’re tired of hearing the same horsecrap over and over again.

In an interview with ‘Axios on HBO’ the Pak Prime Minister said, “If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men unless they are robots. It’s just common sense. This is cultural imperialism. Whatever is acceptable in our culture, must be acceptable everywhere else. It’s not.”

This is the interview

Earlier, PTI spokespersons argued the PM never attributed women’s dress to sexual violence but was speaking generally about pardah for both men and women

Here the PM leaves no room for any doubt (or spin)

A pity the outcry earlier had no impact on him pic.twitter.com/bHCBmFxvyv

— Reema Omer (@reema_omer) June 21, 2021

Also Read: Pakistan PM Imran Khan Says Vulgarity Is Causing More Rapes In The Country. What Nonsense!

It’s this kind of horrid thinking that is holding countries like Pakistan back. What the very sexist PM Imran Khan so desperately needs to understand is that a woman can wear whatever she wants. It’s her body and hence her choice. In the same way, it’s a man’s choice to sexually assault her. He is placing the blame on the wrong gender. His comments have started a social media agitation and rightly so. People are expressing their rage and disgust against PM Imran Khan for making such misogynistic comments.

Reema Omer, a legal advisor with the International Commission of Jurists, said that PM Imran Khan’s comments are sickening. She 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.”

This isn’t the first time PM Imran Khan has made such horribly sexist comments. In fact, just recently, he blamed vulgarity and obscenity for the rise in sexual violence cases in Pakistan. In this instance as well he advised women to cover themselves up in order to avoid building up temptation in men. Because clothes are the real culprit here.

Someone needs to tell him that a woman’s clothing is not what causes a man to sexually assault her. How exactly is violence against women in Pakistan going to end if this is the mentality of its Prime Minister? It’s sickening.