Pakistan PM Imran Khan links women’s clothes to rise in sexual violence

Pakistan
Prime Minister Imran Khan is once again facing criticism for his comments blaming
women and their dressing habits for the rise of sexual violence in the country.
During an interview with Axios journalist Jonathan Swan, the former cricketer
said, “If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact on the man
unless they are robots. It’s common sense.”

The interview
aired on HBO on Sunday, with Khan’s earlier comments on women and ‘obscenity’
coming back under the scanner since. In an interview with Geo News earlier this
year, Khan said that sexual violence was on the rise because of Western habits
and ‘obscenity’.

When asked
what action he planned to take to curb the rising incidents of rape and other
violence, particularly against children, Khan blamed “fahashi” (vulgarity) for such
incidents. He said the concept of ‘purdah’ in Islam exists to remove “temptation”
from society, because “not everyone has willpower”.

Justifying
those comments, Khan told Swan he spoke of ‘purdah’ as a means to avoid temptation.

“We don’t have discotheques, we don’t have night clubs, so its a different way
of life here. If you raise temptation in the society to a point and all these
young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences in the society.”

Upon being
asked if women’s clothing can cause incidents of sexual violence, Khan said, “It
depends on what society you live in. If in a society people haven’t seen that
sort of thing, it will have an impact on them. If you grow up in a society like
yours, maybe it won’t have an impact.”

Khan also
touched upon other issues related to Pakistan in the interview. He said he will
“absolutely not” allow the CIA to use Pakistan as a base for cross-border
counterterrorism missions, according to an Axios report.

Khan was also
dismissive about questions on China and their treatment of Uyghur Muslims. “Whatever
issues we have with the Chinese, we speak to them behind closed doors. China
has been one of the greatest friends to us in our most difficult times,” the 68-year-old
said.