The bedrock of what you are is your physical being. The evidence of your concrete presence is your body, a tangible entity that is exclusively yours; irreplaceable and non-exchangeable. Thus the body being the receptacle as well as an expression of life is sacred. It’s in fact more sacred than what is traditionally sacred. And that which is sacred according to the accepted norms becomes inviolable and thus goes unquestioned. Acceptance of sanctity of human life is the product of survival instinct as well that of social evolution spread over a long span of time. Such an acceptance is conditional and hence not universal. Gender, class, race and faith play a crucial role in determining whose life among humans is less or more sacred.

Take gender for instance. Man and woman both are human but man’s life is thought to be more valuable than that of a woman. Female life per se is not taken as very significant as its significance is conceived more in terms of relationship it has with male in a patriarchy-dominated family structure. A deep sense of female insignificance is rooted in the male’s perception of her physiology which appears to him to be different than that of his. Such a perception betrays a paradox: female body, though weaker in terms of physical strength, is stronger in terms of procreative function. So the male strength is employed to apparently protect the weak body that ensures the perpetuity of one’s family and race. The body thus protected turns into a piece of property of the person who protects it.

Transformation of female into a possession or commodity is historically mediated by secular and religious institutions. The former provides the material basis and the latter the ethical and metaphysical sanction which morphs the woman into something that is completely her opposite. Once that happens, the woman is given the status of sacred personal property capable of producing offspring that becomes conduit through which material property is transferred from one generation to the other with the backing of politico-legal and socio-moral instruments. That is what is found etched in the unwritten social annals of extraordinary gravitas.

The most characteristic feature of private property is that it isn’t shareable; it’s exclusively at the disposal of its owner. When female is reduced into the category of goods and chattels, she stands divested of her power to act on her own. She no longer remains a person, a subject. But the female though rendered powerless has an uncanny power inbuilt in her body that can irresistibly seduce men other than the one she belongs to. Property as we all know attracts thieves. The thieves are sexually starved men driven by their dark uncontrollable human urges and desires who in a moment of predatory frenzy throw caution to the winds and sexually assault women showing total disregard for human values and legitimate social restraints.

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Human body, especially the female one, is a private space which when trampled with sexually-driven insidious intent results in deep physical and psychological wounds for the victim. The wounds rarely heal and if they ever heal, they leave behind scars that never cease to be a source of hidden but unbearable existential pain. But men with extremely primitive mindset not only miserably fail to share the pain of the victim but also at some level hold her responsible for the horrible sexual crime committed against her person. The perpetrator and the victim are driven with the same stick. “Why she was where she was at the moment of crime? Why did she dress the way she dressed?” they would rave and rant without an iota of shame.

In plain words, when a rape case surfaces the following things happen: Firstly, every effort is made to make it a very hush-hush affair. Considering it a matter of honour men of the affected family try their best not to report it to police because resorting to legal action against the criminal would make the case a public embarrassment for the victim’s clan. The clan would prefer to plan the murder of the culprit instead. Secondly, panchayat, the traditional council of elders, when called upon to decide the rape case, usually orders the rapist to marry the rape victim which means condemning her to live with a lifelong trauma. And this is done in good faith believing that no one would marry the unmarried victim. In case she is married, the panchayat may allow a male of the aggrieved family to ask for hand of the perpetrator’s sister or cousin in marriage to resolve the conflict.

Recently, something unimaginably cruel and horribly ghoulish happened in the vicinity of Multan when the brother of a rape victim raped the young sister of a rapist in full view of a crowd by order of the panchayat. Well, such is the wisdom of our wise and the judgment of our judges.