Pakistan: Police arrest man for assaulting, stripping woman

Pakistani police on Wednesday arrested a man in Islamabad after a video of him threatening and stripping a young couple emerged on social media.

The video, which reportedly showed the suspect in a room full of men assaulting the woman and man, has prompted widespread condemnation, with activists demanding strict punishment for the accused.

The incident highlighted the high level of gender-based violence in Pakistan, which regularly ranks poorly among on international surveys of gender-based violence.

The video showed "five to six men… keeping the victims in custody under gunpoint. The accused also stripped the man and the woman naked while threatening them," according to the police report cited by Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

Soon after the video went viral, police arrested the suspect and his accomplices, said Islamabad police Deputy Commission Hamza Shafqaat.

He also appealed to social media users to delete the videos that reveal the identity of the couple.

Women's safety in Pakistan

The incident comes weeks after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan faced backlash for comments that appeared to put the blame for sexual abuse on women.

"If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they are robots," Khan said during an interview for documentary-news series Axios, aired by US broadcaster HBO. He proceeded to say that this was "common sense."

Nida Kirmani, a Karachi-based feminist sociologist, said on Twitter that while she was glad the suspect was arrested, such crimes were underreported.

"Think about how many such videos are shared regularly; now think about what percentage of incidents get recorded; now about how many don't have access to social media, and try and calculate how much violence is actually taking place," she wrote.

"The case emerges at a time when the issue of violence against women is once again at the forefront of public debates," Kirmani, a professor at Lahore University of Management Sciences, told DW.

"The prime minister's comment about women’s clothing as a cause for sexual assault tells us how far we have to go in terms of the understanding of gender-based violence in this country."

"Sadly, rape culture is predominant in Pakistan — one that blames the victims of sexual assault and frames all men as naturally violent. Many are working to try to change this discourse, but it is an uphill battle," Kirmani said.