The chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, has been making highly-charged speeches against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government in recent months. Then we saw Prime Minister Imran Khan endorsing Umar’s remarks and belittling Bhutto-Zardari’s choice of using his mother’s surname. To deliberately call the PPP chairman ‘sahiba’ — a term used for women — may have been intended as an insult by the prime minister but it backfired. From commenting on their physical appearance to calling them ‘sluts’ to other abuses specific to women, men in cyberspace target women like a lynch mob. It will take years to change the misogynist mindset but we have to keep challenging it in order to make a difference.

Source: The Telegraph May 09, 2019 04:18 UTC