Pakistan’s #Metoo moment: Top celebs share their experiences
ISLAMABAD: The rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in the sleepy town of Kasur, located close to the Indian border, appears to have triggered Pakistan’s #Metoo moment, with some of the country’s top celebrities coming out to share their experiences of sexual abuse as children.
Fashion icon Freiha Altaf took to Twitter to share her ordeal. “I was sexually abused by our cook at age six,” the former supermodel wrote. “My parents took action but everyone remained silent as if it was my shame. At 34, I realised how it had impacted my life. The only shame is keeping SILENT.”
Actor Nadia Jamil was one of the first women to express her despair and call for justice for the seven-year-old girl, whose body was found dumped in a heap of garbage five days after she was kidnapped.
Jamil also opened up about her own dreadful episodes of sexual abuse.
“I was four the first time I was abused sexually,” she tweeted. “I was in college when it blew out of proportion. People tell me not to talk to respect my family’s honour. Is my family’s honour packed in my body? I am a proud, strong, loving survivor. No shame on me or my kids. Only pride for being me.”
Fashion designer Maheen Khan spoke out about her abuse by a cleric who taught her to read the Quran.
“The Maulvi who came to teach me the Quran abused me sexually. I froze in fear day after day. Share in support of children subjected to the sick acts…by so called custodians of our religion,” she said.
The public sharing of experiences of abuse by several women in deeply conservative Pakistan, where such subjects are taboo, is unprecedented. Most families dealing with such situations usually try to hush up matters to protect the “honour” of women and police complaints are rarely filed.