by Hafsa Mumtaz
Police in Pakistan have opened cases against hundreds of unidentified men after a young woman was sexually assaulted and groped by a crowd of more than 400 men in a park in Lahore as she made a TikTok video. The shocking assault was captured on several videos, which went viral and showed a mob descend on the woman as she was in Lahore’s Greater Iqbal park making a TikTok video with friends. In broad daylight, the men picked up the young woman and tossed her between them, tearing her clothes and assaulting and groping her. The woman registered a case against 300 to 400 unidentified persons with Lahore police, according to the case report seen by the Guardian. “The crowd pulled me from all sides to such an extent that my clothes were torn. I was hurled in the air. They assaulted me brutally,” the woman said in a statement to the police. She said the crowd also stole her money, earrings and a phone. —The Guardian, August 19, 2021
But the headlines remain the same –
But this time, it wasn’t just a man, just a gang,
But a mob of 400 men...
But this time, it wasn’t just private milieu,
But in the open outside Minar-e-Pakistan...
But this time, it wasn’t just a secret hour,
But the time of Azaan (the prayer call) ...
Another day, another woman,
Just like many previous targets,
She was dressed decently – so stop this ‘the victim was a victim because
they were wearing such clothes’ nonsense right here.
But why would the maulvis say anything?
For all they need is a woman to blame for her brazenness
For all they need is to hold the axe of ‘Deen’ (religion) and behead the victims
For all they need is a woman to criticise and condemn
For all they need is Islam to exploit.
Oh, what a free land! 400 predators, 1victim, and no one to bat an eyelid!
Oh, what an Independence Day for the predators whose minds are still enslaved by their lust!
Oh, so this is the country founded in the name of Islam...
I read a random WhatsApp status, saying,
We merely celebrate the Islam (alluding to Ashura),
We don’t adopt Islam.
Similarly, we merely celebrate Independence Day
We still haven’t absorbed the essence of it.
Hafsa Mumtaz is a 22-year-old Pakistan-based emerging poet, a recent graduate of English Language and Literature, and a Muslim. Her poetry was first published in Visual Verse Anthology, and then in Rising Phoenix Review.