Recently, in an interview with “Axios on HBO” with journalist Jonathan Swan, which aired earlier today, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that “if a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they are robots” which has sparked a global outrage on Twitter.
‘If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men unless they’re robots, it’s common sense, it depends which society you live in, if people haven’t seen that sort of things it will have an impact on them,’ PM Imran Khan says. pic.twitter.com/LbADIC2HBN
— Murtaza Ali Shah (@MurtazaViews) June 21, 2021
The topic started off when Swan asked PM Khan about earlier remarks he made pertaining to rape and vulgarity in Pakistan, PM said that it is “such nonsense”.
“I said that the concept of purdah avoids temptation in the society. We don’t have discos here, we don’t have night clubs, so it is a completely different society, and way of life here. So if you raise temptation in the society to the point and all these young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences in the society.”
Swan asked: “Do you think that what women wear has any affect, that’s part of this temptation?”
“If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they are robots. I mean it’s common sense,” replied PM.
His views regarding women and sexual assault cooked up an outrage on Twitter with people from all over the world including Pakistan calling him out for his stance.
The story was covered by Indian TV channel ‘India Today’.
Pakistan Prime Minister #ImranKhan again blames women’s clothing for rapes in #Pakistan.
Read More: https://t.co/RS2JJZGJD1#Pakistan #ITCard pic.twitter.com/JFj56nVckT— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) June 21, 2021
Reema Omer, a legal advisor with the International Commission of Jurists, also expressed disappointment after Khan repeated his stance regarding cases of sexual violence.
Disappointing and frankly sickening to see PM Imran Khan repeat his victim blaming regarding reasons for sexual violence in Pakistan
Men are not “robots”, he says. If they see women in skimpy clothes, they will get “tempted” and some will resort to rape
Shameful!
— Reema Omer (@reema_omer) June 20, 2021
Many others also expressed their outrage.
Hope men also feel outraged by Imran Khan’s comments. We cant accept that men are inherently so barbaric that they would resort to rape at the slightest temptation. Surely we have the ability to respect others and know our boundaries. Otherwise we would be worse than robots.
— Ammar Ali Jan (@ammaralijan) June 21, 2021
Imran Khan has lost it completely https://t.co/yh2jLB9Zzg
— Viren Rasquinha (@virenrasquinha) June 21, 2021