That Imran Khan’s assertion about Mariam Nawaz on the Multan rally reeks of innuendo and sexism can’t be debated.
On a current journey to London, a British man requested me my ideas on Imran Khan given all of the political upheaval in April. Too complicated to unpack in small speak with a stranger ready for a cab, I turned the query again on him. “He’s a misogynist — a complete misogynist who lived like a playboy and now wants to police women,” got here the reply.
This story by itself would not benefit a point out as a result of actually, what does the opinion of 1 random 40-something Brit matter? However since Imran misses no alternative to carry up how a lot he is aware of the West and the way nicely the folks there know him and respect him not like the Sharif brothers and Asif Ali Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, our former prime minister ought to know — in case it nonetheless hasn’t dawned on him — that financial corruption isn’t the one factor that may harm one’s status.
On Friday evening, addressing a rally of 1000’s, Imran whereas delivering his political rhetoric stated this: “I used to be despatched the video of Maryam’s speech on social media yesterday; in that speech she took my identify so many occasions with such jazba and junoon that I need to inform her to watch out, your husband may get upset at you taking my identify so usually.”
Even typing these phrases made me cringe, so I hope studying them or listening to Imran say them is as uncomfortable for everybody else.
That the assertion reeks of innuendo and sexism can’t be debated, so allow us to get that out of the way in which.
Defending the indefensible
Imran Khan at this second is vying for votes, his celebration’s reputation and its narrative, and his legacy. His feedback about ladies — whereas not detrimental to the primary two — will have an effect on the final, which is probably an important to somebody like him who would very very like to be immortalised as a fantastic man within the pages of historical past.
The problematic viewpoints of Imran will not be Maryam-specific; he has put his foot in his mouth a number of occasions earlier than when speaking about ladies. His statements on sexual harassment and girls’s dressing akin to sufferer blaming are nonetheless as triggering as they had been final yr when he made them.
However there have been those that defended him then and can accomplish that now as nicely.
Some feedback to this text will level out that different politicians, together with Maryam, have made derogatory feedback about Imran and his household. Imran’s supporters will say the PML-N and PPP have painted Bushra Bibi within the sexist function of a scheming and controlling spouse. Others will level out how Jemima Goldsmith continues to be not spared of harassment due to her affiliation with Imran.
And I’ll level out the gratuitous tweet by PML-N, through its official Twitter account, proper after the Multan rally, which confirmed a photograph of Imran Khan’s sons and Tyrian White with the message saying how may a person who has not “owned up to his own daughter” respect the daughters of others.
That’s the merry-go-round of political filth that nobody can get off.
However none of that absolves Imran and his phrases. Imran Khan, not like the brash mouthpieces of PTI and PML-N, is the face of a celebration. He’s honored by thousands and thousands of younger women and men. A former prime minister. A person watched and even typically nonetheless revered by the worldwide media. He’s an almost 70 yr outdated man whose first spouse has needed to cope with perpetual harassment. His present spouse was not spared both. And but, at a rally, whereas addressing 1000’s of individuals trying to him as the way forward for the nation, he made these feedback about Maryam.
The purpose stays that Imran is and ought to be held to the next customary. If for no different motive than this easy one: he has repeatedly informed Pakistanis he’s completely different from the remainder. His whole political profession, and even attraction, has been constructed on that. So both he has to stroll the speak or cease promoting himself as the person who stands aside out of your “typical politicians”, as he usually refers to them.
An enabler to what finish?
One of many evident issues with Imran’s crassness is that his remark about Maryam will allow and encourage younger boys in addition to males to consult with ladies and ladies on this method. It begins with Maryam, her husband, their conjugal relationship and her saying Imran’s identify and strikes on to ladies that these boys and males know of their private {and professional} lives.
We already dwell in a society the place if a feminine worker goes to the workplace of a male worker one too many occasions, whispers begin. If a feminine scholar has lunch with a male scholar, tales are concocted. Fathers, husbands and brothers ask the females of their households to seek out “women only” working environments. Feminine cooks and cleaners who take a rickshaw or a bus to work to make their livelihood return to households and husbands who continually query their character.
Imran’s feedback about modesty and rape had been in the identical vein; he was perpetuating a harmful notion and enabling males to shun off the accountability of committing the act due to “temptation”.
These statements, which Imran refuses to apologise for, present how disconnected he’s from the ladies of this nation and what they undergo; how he doesn’t realise that ladies who gown head to toe in an abaya and hijab are felt up although they provide no ‘temptation by dressing immodestly.’
He’s insensitive to the truth that ladies in positions of energy and management already face sexist feedback and suggestive seems to be. The whole lot from their marital standing and what number of youngsters they’ve or don’t need to how a lot effort they put into their look and what tone they take when speaking to males — it’s all burdensomely dissected.
Him making a lewd remark about Maryam taking his identify and her husband being offended is feeding into this mindset and he can not escape accountability beneath the garb of she’s truthful sport as a result of she’s a public determine or as a result of she lashes out at him as a political opponent.
On the danger of a tarnished legacy
Coming again to his legacy — I carry it up in hopes that maybe that is the one factor which will give Imran pause, as a result of a lot that has already been stated and written about his sexist feedback appears to have had no impact. ‘Jokes’ like these about Maryam might get him cheers from the group and earn him chuckles from his male comrades nevertheless it gained’t do any good to the reminiscence of him.
Discuss your political opponent’s work, her alleged corruption, the Calibri scandal all you need, however go away her standing as a mom, a spouse and a grandmother alone. And extra importantly, do not make innuendos which are unbecoming of a former prime minister, of somebody who desires to be prime minister once more, of somebody who continuously makes use of Islamic references to make his level and of somebody who says he is a job mannequin for the youth of the nation.
Nobody can take away the truth that Imran will probably be remembered as a star cricketer, a contentious prime minister, a formidable opposition chief, an ardent philanthropist — but in addition as a serial sexist? If these final two phrases offend him, and they need to, then I hope he provides a deep thought to his viewpoints associated to ladies over time and contemplates what he’s forsaking for generations to recollect him as.
