An unwanted touch

Rakhshinda Shakir

The despair which stems from the unwanted touch, almost the majority men passing by riding motorcycles cause, or down the valley standing at the corners of local shops an immense ugly gang stare seize our comfort. These unwanted and unconsented ridiculous behaviors of men mark our bodies with forever grief that prints in our soul a long-lasting agony; a story of every woman. These unwanted touch prints stay with us like an ominous nightmare lifelong, that are unable to fix and we never truly overcome but grow numb with them.

I won’t ask for fancy or impossible terms such as justice, compensation bla bla, but do me a favor please; believe that harassment is not a myth or a made-up story that women make, rather an immoral practice turned into an unofficial norm almost impossible to undo now, and each day we women walk full of fear even across the streets due to patriarchy which you call an honorable culture.

The fear with which we walk the streets is damn real and the men riding motorcycles, around the street corners standing at local shops who find harassing women amusing is real too. The latter is more threatening, for finding harassment entertaining is a sign for more harassment, more killing, more rape, and chaos.

This is what been happening every other day, rape, kidnap, burn, harass and get away with it, and when we say ”my body, my choice” it triggers negativity in men, and the incident in Lahore where a mother is gang-raped is the result stemming from a lethal and abandoned mentality called patriarchy.

Spare us, let us breathe, dear men!