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With the hashtags #TimesUp and #MeToo in full swing all across the world, the debacle has reached Pakistan as well. Unprecedented but amazingly, women and even young girls, have now started speaking against harassment they face almost every single day.
The plan, however, in Pakistan, is to not give hints anymore. As the precedent was set by ousting the CEO of Patari and other bloggers from Twitter who used to sexually harass women, the movement has now reached Facebook as well.
A young A-levels student from a private college in Karachi is being called out for sexually harassing and physically groping girls from his class and institute. What began from a comment on somebody’s private Facebook post, turned into a route of almost 800 comments, when the a girl confronted her harasser in public – after which, the post went viral, and other girls who had been hurt by the same young boy, came out as well.
The whole incident began with this one comment, where the girl called out her harasser by posting this comment under a related meme that was posted by one of her friends
After the initial comment from the girl, the guy started debating over how she was wrongly accusing him, as the matter had also reached their College administration and parents of both children had been involved. It was then that different young girls from all over the country started appearing under the thread and shaming the harasser.
Comment after comment, new people were tagged to the thread and soon the pool reached to over 700 comments of people shaming the girl’s harasser. This attracted more girls from the college to speak out against the boy as well.
After the second girl endorsed the first girl’s claims, many other rallied around to their support as well. This lead to further shaming for the young boy who had fouled many girls, as later comments proved. This is how people spoke in favor of the two girls:
All the young chaps from the college and their surroundings then started trending #IStandWIth for the two girls. This incident again shows that the awareness level of Pakistani teenagers has increased by leaps and bounds and people are not ready to bare harassment in any shape anymore. As all the people who commented under the thread stated, “more power to the victims” for speaking out against sexual harassment.
