By: Fizza Liaqat
Nowadays, why young generation commits suicide? Suicide is an impulsive decision while in teens and young adults it is mostly seen as a solution to hard life situation and triggered by stress, loss, financial issues, pressures to succeed and rape. It is estimated that around 20% of global suicides are due to pesticide self-poisoning, most of which occur in rural agricultural areas in low- and middle-income countries. Other common methods of suicide are hanging and firearms.
Rape is a horrible crime and it effects the victims for the rest of their lives. Depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are common conditions among rape victims. Numerous rape victims have suicidal thoughts. Many die by suicide. In Pakistan, most of the childs, young girls and women have been killed by the rapist after rape and which are left alive after rape they committed to suicide. Pakistan is among those countries where 70% women and girls experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime by their intimate partners and 93% women experience some form of sexual violence in public places in their lifetime. In Sindh, 586 females committed suicide due to rape across the province over the last 5 years. In Punjab 2018-2019 the rape% in Pakistan is 54-55% and gang rape is 6-4%. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) 2020, an incident of rape occurs every two hours and an innocent victim is gang-raped every four to eight days. Pakistani activists estimate that there are about 1000 “honour” suicide every year.
In Sindh at Tharparkar district, The teenager ( A 17- year old girl) who belonged to a Hindu family, took her own life by jumping into a deep open well in village Dalan-Jo-Tarr near Chelhar town after being raped by the three men in mid- July in 2019. Villagers retrieved the body and shifted it to Mithi Civil Hospital for postmortem examination. According to victim’s father and other relatives told reporters that the girl committed suicide after she was blackmailed and harassed by influential suspects who had raped her. Chelhar police had registered a first information report (FIR). The suspects had not only taken turns to rape the girl but allegedly also filmed the ordeal after taking her to a house. According to then Tharparkar senior superintendent of police (SSP) Abdullah Ahmedyar, initial medical reports had confirmed that the girl had been sexually assaulted. In Bahawalpur 18- year old girl committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan at her house in the village after police delayed taking action against the suspect. Why girls are raped? Why they blackmail and harass only girls? Why always girls committed to suicide after rape? Is suicide the only option after rape? Women ask for sex by the way they dress and behave, women are raped only by strangers, women could avoid being raped if they really wanted to, rapists are crazy or psychotic (“animals” is a word that is often used). None of the above are generically true even if there may be some truth in some rare individual cases. When we are harassed, raped, abused, cheated, beaten or bullied, it must always be our fault because the question that is asked in each of those instances is: what we did to deserve such treatment? For some reason, the idea that no one deserves such treatment. The trauma of sexual assault, rape survivors have to deal with immense societal backlash that often begins with their immediate families and extend to their communities. They routinely face harassment when they try to report rape case. Further, the conviction rate for rapists in Pakistan, is barely 2% and this only pertains to cases that are reported which are a fraction of those that occur. Here, the fact remains that something is not seen as a crime until, it is treated as a crime and that can only happen when it is routinely punished. Before going into the depth of the justice system in Pakistan, the idea of rape was blended with adultery and fornication in the time of Zia-ul-Haq, the then-president and dictator of Pakistan in the decade of the 1980s. Under the Zina Ordinance (one of the six parts of Hudood Ordinance), rape, adultery and fornication were fused to have a single meaning. The law was amended in 2006 by giving a separate definition to rape as it is today. But the former had already exploited the women’s right to freedom, choice and consent that the effects of which pervade to this day. Thus, rape was seen as women’s fault more than men’s desire. Therefore, solution to the problem of rape is simple: implement a dress code for women, ban the promiscuous display of women’s bodies, promote social marriages and encourage polygamy. This is something very intriguing. In the time when women’s participation is needed in the worldly development and progress of nations, laws and articles such as these will only bring turmoil, exploitation of women’s rights and injustice. So, the prevailing culture of rape has never been the center of discussion in Pakistan leading to inefficient laws and policies. Or it has happened that the discussion has lost its importance and consistency within two to three days. After a few days, the debate in media and conferences again fades away until another shocking incident grabs the attention of the public causing fear and trauma. Prime Minister Imran Khan said; rapists should be handed down the most severe punishments to curb rising sexual violence, such as either hanging them publicly or chemically castrating them.
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