A Slap on the Face of the Society
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
She stands in the middle of a crowded room, a mike in her right hand, screaming, gesticulating at the uniformed Frontier Constabulary (FC) soldier, goading him to respond. With that image in mind, let me introduce you to the new era of journalism in Pakistan which runs only on one principle: in war, love, and media, everything is fair. Jingoism is fair, obscenity is fair, tackling is fair, yelling is fair, and rioting is fair-a challenge that she has accepted.
Looking at the soldier though, you see a different picture: a face swept with anxiety. Despite her insinuations, he distances himself from her moving towards his colleagues in a corner without uttering a word. Everyone realizes that he needs to be left alone; that any trigger can lead to a meltdown. Determined to boost her program ratings, she does not realize and grabs him by his arm yanking his sleeve. Out of a sudden, the solider turns around, swings the same arm all the way and slaps her on the face. Not expecting a severe blow like that, she falls down. Here, the video ends abruptly.
Later on, the female journalist, SaimaKanwal, tells another television anchor that she just wanted to confirm if the uniform of the soldier was official or it was one of an imitation provided to the guards by a private security company. How she could determine that? I am not sure. If questioned, I don’t think she would know the answer herself. Anyway, during the interview she adds that moments before the clip the same soldier exhibited a rude behavior towards women, condescending them, hurling abuses at them, pushing them away. And her attitude, although not ideal, emerged as a response to this aggression.
The video though ends abruptly, but it has sparked a series of discussions across the country: a war of words sprung on Twitter to determine who is to be blamed more, a battle ensued on Facebook to defend the violent soldier, an argument erupted on What’sapp to justify the unprofessionalism of the journalist. Needless to say, the conflict also reached the dinner table, husbands passionately pointing at the irresponsible attitude of the anchor, the wives focusing more on the cruelty of the soldier.
Honestly speaking, I need to condemn SaimaKanwal first for her actions; and then the whole media industry that has to be held responsible for promoting such behavior and creating an environment in which the semi-educated, ill-trained journalists are encouraged to ignore all the rules of professionalism for a short-term surge in program ratings. She obviously succumbed to those pressures for which I do not think she should be allowed to work on television again.
Having said that, for me every debate ends when a man hits a woman and it ends as abruptly as the clip. It does not start from there, no way, not in any civilized society. If we begin the debate after the violence has been unleashed upon a woman, then you are bound to find faults in her every single time. I can guarantee that.
Stressing on the same point, in the West they say don’t blame the woman for getting raped because she is wearing a miniskirt. Wearing a short dress is not the crime (at least in Europe and America), the crime is to consider that short dress as an invitation to force yourself upon her. In Pakistan, it seems we say just the opposite: blame her for inappropriate choice of clothes, her lack of consideration of societal norms, her sinful looks, her desire to draw attention. And after putting her down from every possible angle and humiliating her existence as a sex object, we always come to the point: protect the violence of the man. How could he resist himself? He has been made that way!
Among other arguments , I also hear that soldiers are trained to protect the sanctity of their uniforms, that any assault on the dress is considered as an assault on the organization, the institution they are sworn to protect. So if you grab his arm he would always do what he is trained to do: hit back with full force. In that regards, he just performed his duty, an action that he did not contemplate but instinctively executed.
My response to this bizarre explanation: if a soldier can be taught to reflexly protect the sanctity of the uniform then why have we not taught our men to respect our women the same way? Why some of us always find a problem in women as the one responsible for the criminal actions of men? Why do men not go through the same level of scrutiny as women do for their actions? It’s because we believe in the superiority of men over women, whether we admit it or not. We use religion, science, social sciences, economics, psychology, biology, and philosophy to prove that point throughout our lives. The slap on the ’s face by a uniformed guard is a slap on the face of the whole society which has lost its honor in providing a cover to its dishonorable men.
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