There comes a time in societal evolution when managing the effect ascertains the cause. Such is the condition of our deteriorating societal values and morals. The debate on what's right and what is wrong is so sacred and valuable to our ideologues that its practice conveniently evades their moral sensors.
The fact that whether we should be punishing rape or not is still a debate goes on to show the futility of education and intellect in our pseudo religious cum feudal setup.
This said, 'hyper sexualised' depictions of women remain as a constant threat to any semblance of sanity or normalcy. Corporations have to stop selling female bodies to market their products. Why does freedom of expression and innovation dare not meddle with such an objectified 'exposure' ? Doesn't the depiction of women as objects count as a violation of human rights?
Lets see what ORDINARY women have to say about this:
(These statements have been collected and translated from real conversations and the names have been changed)
" When I started covering it wasnt because It was culturally acceptable, it was because I believed that it was something I had to do ultimately to practice my belief as a Muslim. It was an internal realisation. Amazingly the resistance I encountered while practicing my belief came from the most unexpected of people. The women I started studying with had an amazingly odd sense of superiority quite contrary to the humble basis of their belief. They considered themselves the best only because they thought they were the chosen ones to serve their faith forgetting that any service to human beings requires a humble acceptance of ones limitations and not a blown sense of self-righteousness.
Their condemnation of certain types of demeanour in a covered woman can be traced quite conveniently to a hypocritical victorian piety(pre- colonial nostalgia). An unsaid code for those of their ilk. Those who fail to follow are immediately marked as outcasts. Its quite amazing when understood but culturally these women had accepted them selves as sexual objects and thus covered only to ward of their own insecurity and not to practice Islam"
Shared Ayesha a mother and a teacher who started covering after studying the Quran as an adult.
"I think this sort of resistance buds from assigning fixed cultural roles in our society. A woman who covers should stay away from the crowds and a woman who reveals should be on constant display while it can easily be vice versa in reality. So hypersexulisation to me is not merely about the display of flesh, its more about mis perceived notions of viewing women as sexual objects. This happens only when they have been displayed in a sexualised way for so long that day to day ordinary dealings and conversation with the opposite sex are inevitably interpreted as such. We need to take the opposite sex normally and this can never happen if we keep on advertising our products with women in satins and bathtubs." She added.
"Depictions do not merely limit the reality, they also shape it. The increase of rape and sexual crimes against women is only a depiction of what we have turned our society into" piped in Rabia. Another ordinary mother and a homemaker.
"I remember buying vegetables and fruit from the vendor in my street with ease. Now I fear the same for my daughter. I have stopped watching these useless tv drama serials on our television only because they either degrade women by hypersexulaising them or converting them into some superwoman who comes out beautifully in full make up after every beating or heartbreak.
Lamented Zara.
We as a nation have a long way to travel from legislation to a change of mindset or wait wasnt it the other way around. Ah! my elderly mother calling............ said just another ordinary woman.
Saima Sher Fazal.
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