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LAHORE: A Pakistani police chief faced a growing backlash on Friday after he appeared to blame the victim for an alleged gang rape because he was driving at night without a male partner.
The controversy began after a woman was allegedly assaulted and raped by several men in front of her two children when her car ran out of fuel on the outskirts of the city on Wednesday night.
Lahore Police Chief Umar Sheikh repeatedly reprimanded the victim for driving without a man at night while speaking to the media about the incident, adding that no one in Pakistani society would “allow their sisters and daughters to travel alone until so late”.
Sheikh went on to say that the victim, a resident of France, likely “mistook that Pakistani society is as safe” as her home country.
Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari said her comments were unacceptable.
“Nothing can ever rationalize the crime of rape,” he added.
Lawyer and women’s rights activist Khadija Siddiqi told AFP that Sheikh’s comments were part of an unfortunate and “very unbridled” culture of blaming victims in Pakistan.
Protests were planned in cities across Pakistan on Friday, and Sheikh’s comments sparked demands for his resignation.
“We are angry, we demand his removal and we demand his apology,” said Nighat Dad, a women’s rights activist and one of the organizers of an annual march for women’s rights in Lahore.
Much of conservative Pakistan lives under a patriarchal code of “honor” that systematizes the oppression of women by, for example, preventing them from choosing their own husband or working outside the home.
Activists have denounced the widespread, sometimes deadly violence by men, usually male relatives, against women who break these taboos.
Around a thousand Pakistani women are killed in honor killings each year, in which the victim, usually a woman, is killed by a relative for shaming the family.
