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Being born a woman in Pakistan is a crime and leading a life of a single, working parent is an even bigger atrocity. Harassment is given to a woman as a national birthright in Pakistan. From a plumber to a high ranking official all give the same lecherous looks because after all she’s a woman and if she’s out and about then obviously she’s ‘asking for it’.
Every day we read articles about sexual harassment and harassment of women in general but we pass it off as a common occurrence or an ‘exaggeration’ labeled as ‘feminist Nazis’ trying to create a scene’ and those who should read it are too busy groping and manhandling women.
19 years ago my mother brought me to Pakistan with hopes and dreams sparkling in her eyes, thinking she would be able to give me a better environment to grow up in. After all what better country is there than our own country, Pakistan? That’s what she “thought” when she had me in her arms and stepped on our national soil. She was WRONG.
For 19 years I have been living in constant torture at the hands of these corrupt civil servants. Torture that only high profile criminals deserve but my mother’s crime was only trying to earn a decent living for her daughter in Pakistan. A happy woman supporting herself and her only child was unbearable for these sadistic bureaucrats. Laws alone cannot change this society as long as the people implementing them are the ones committing these heinous crimes. They are content that someone as inferior as a woman could never initiate a serious inquiry against their conniving ways because she has her job, reputation and promotion at stake.
These shameless civil servants holding key positions in Islamabad have not only ruined my mother’s career but have ruined my childhood and every possible thing they could get their hands on. They have feasted upon our souls with no remorse and are running scot-free while we are trying to grasp at a shred of humanity left in the people to help us out of this quicksand. Numerous applications to the ministries and to the police have turned out to be useless as the men in charge of implementing law and order are the ones disrupting it in the first place. Where would you go if you want to report the very person in charge of reading the reports?
Living in F-1, the heart of Islamabad, right under the nose of the Parliament, I couldn’t even imagine in my wildest nightmares what these sadists could do to physically harm and emotionally murder a meager, single working woman. It started with turning up at our front door late nights asking for ‘favors’ and when rejected, they punished my mother by ruining her life and career. Withholding her promotions, constantly transferring her to different departments and creating a hostile work environment and when that wasn’t enough to satisfy and feed their male egos, the harassment followed her home.
Punctured tires, broken doors, and windows, car thefts, physical assaults, open life threats — I could keep on listing the heinous crimes they committed for over a span of 19 years and the list would not end. These holier than thou men working for the government hurl stones and bricks at us whenever we enter the vicinity of our neighborhood and harangue us on the streets on a daily basis. Their allies always come to their defense since they also see the reflection of their own actions and don’t want anyone to get punished.
We have been tortured, traumatized and denied of our basic human rights which are clearly nonexistent in the capital city. Our water supply was cut off for almost 15 days and a mob gathered around our front door as soon as we stepped out to get some help. The Pak PWD and the Housing Ministry feign ignorance and are mere puppets being controlled by these men residing in F-1, Islamabad.
I have been forced to write this open letter as a cry for help since we have left no stone unturned and are unsure of our fate being left in the hands of these barbaric savages serving the government by day and scheming against a single woman by night.
Quaid-e-Azam did not create Pakistan so that the women could be treated the same way as they were in the Subcontinent.
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