No Laughing Matter_ Saying No to Rape Jokes _ Newsline
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No Laughing Matter:
Saying No to Rape
Jokes
By Hajra Komal Feroz (http://newslinemagazine.com/contributor/hajra-komal-feroz/)
Blog Row (http://newslinemagazine.com/category/web-stories/blog-row/)
March 4, 2012
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Somehow in my country, when people talk about rape, they deny the violence
and view it as adultery.
It is impossible to imagine the pain felt by a person who has undergone such
brutality. Rapists symbolise the animal instinct that resides within us: one
that is selfish, unconscionable and unenlightened. In them we see
2. 8/22/2016 No Laughing Matter: Saying No to Rape Jokes | Newsline
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psychologically sick people who have not been able to tame this instinct.
They run on hate, selfishness and violence. With their willingness to push
someone down and force themselves upon them, with their sadistic pleasure
of hearing their victim cry and yell and scream for help, and with our
society’s support of the rapist over the raped, how is it that we call ourselves
educated and civilized?
But even in the most civilized of nations rape prevails.
According to Human Rights Watch, in the US the National Crime
Victimization Survey states that at least 248,300 individuals were raped or
sexually assaulted in 2007. Here in Pakistan, a rape victim does not only
have to face the physical and psychological trauma that follows rape but also
bear the blame, be disowned by her family, abused for dishonouring the
family, and shunned by society in general. According to the Aurat
Foundation, 1,000 women were raped in Pakistan in 2010, while an article in
The Express Tribune from that same year talked about the fear and threat of
rape when it reported that “70 per cent of the total number of female
students have stopped attending schools, colleges and coaching centres
across five districts this year following a shocking gang-rape incident in
Khipro town, in which a student of class XI was allegedly drugged, criminally
assaulted and filmed, [and after which the] video was shared online.”
Ironically, while rape is a rising human rights issue in Pakistan and around
the world, people have regressed to a whole new level by using the term
“rape” in jokes by glorifying the rapist and being insensitive to the victims of
rape. How can jokes such as “What’s black and blue and hates sex? A rape
victim,” and “What do nine out of 10 people enjoy? Gang rape,” be thought of
as appropriate when the agony and inhumanity of this crime is no secret?
To top that, we have celebrities from renowned TV shows tweeting rape
jokes. Rainn Wilson from the hit seriesThe Office tweeted, “I’m on
@ConanOBrien tonight. I’m going to not ‘rape’ Andy, but consensually ‘take’
him, you know?” New York magazine’s “This Season’s Many Rape Jokes on
TV” covers the jokes being cracked and laughed at in sitcoms (see video
below):
3. 8/22/2016 No Laughing Matter: Saying No to Rape Jokes | Newsline
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Luckily, there are people left in this world who believe that rape is not
something to be joked about but rather eliminated. A group of five gender
studies students at SZABIST, in collaboration with KarachiTips, have started
a campaign against rape jokes using Facebook and other social media in
hopes of changing the mindset of people.Newsline spoke to Mohammad
Abdullah, one of the founders of KarachiTips. “I have worked a lot with
various NGOs, and we started KarachiTips with the intention of promoting
the culture of Karachi. When this group of five approached us at KarachiTips
with their idea, it was a topic of great interest for all of us. I myself once
tweeted a rape joke and a friend of mine from Islamabad pointed out how it
wasn’t all that funny. With this campaign we wish to change the mindset of
people in hopes that they see the insensitivity that lies in a mere joke that
includes the word ‘rape.’”
This initiative is laudable and it looks like it will go far. It has already made
an impact with 1,000 “Likes” on its Facebook page in less than a week.
People from all over the world are thanking the students for spreading
awareness and others are confessing to their own insensitive use of the word
“rape.”
Fizza Shahid, one of the students behind the campaign, says, “For our gender
studies action project, my group (Sachal Mughal, Sheema Khawar, Yasal
Munim and Munira Hirwani and I) had to pick an issue, and we chose to
focus on rape culture because it is a taboo topic in the society in which we
live. We decided to specifically focus on rape jokes for the sole reason that it
is not funny to make humour out of one of the most violent crimes that exist
in our society. By calling it ‘dark humour’ we think we’ve justified it enough,
but it isn’t humour to begin with. We want to create awareness regarding the
seriousness of the situation that surrounds the word ‘rape.’”
This campaign is a step towards a revolution: one against jokes that are a
symbol of stupidity and ignorance.
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Visit the page on Facebook set up by SZABIST students and
KarachiTips here (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Say
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![8/22/2016 No Laughing Matter: Saying No to Rape Jokes | Newsline
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psychologically sick people who have not been able to tame this instinct.
They run on hate, selfishness and violence. With their willingness to push
someone down and force themselves upon them, with their sadistic pleasure
of hearing their victim cry and yell and scream for help, and with our
society’s support of the rapist over the raped, how is it that we call ourselves
educated and civilized?
But even in the most civilized of nations rape prevails.
According to Human Rights Watch, in the US the National Crime
Victimization Survey states that at least 248,300 individuals were raped or
sexually assaulted in 2007. Here in Pakistan, a rape victim does not only
have to face the physical and psychological trauma that follows rape but also
bear the blame, be disowned by her family, abused for dishonouring the
family, and shunned by society in general. According to the Aurat
Foundation, 1,000 women were raped in Pakistan in 2010, while an article in
The Express Tribune from that same year talked about the fear and threat of
rape when it reported that “70 per cent of the total number of female
students have stopped attending schools, colleges and coaching centres
across five districts this year following a shocking gang-rape incident in
Khipro town, in which a student of class XI was allegedly drugged, criminally
assaulted and filmed, [and after which the] video was shared online.”
Ironically, while rape is a rising human rights issue in Pakistan and around
the world, people have regressed to a whole new level by using the term
“rape” in jokes by glorifying the rapist and being insensitive to the victims of
rape. How can jokes such as “What’s black and blue and hates sex? A rape
victim,” and “What do nine out of 10 people enjoy? Gang rape,” be thought of
as appropriate when the agony and inhumanity of this crime is no secret?
To top that, we have celebrities from renowned TV shows tweeting rape
jokes. Rainn Wilson from the hit seriesThe Office tweeted, “I’m on
@ConanOBrien tonight. I’m going to not ‘rape’ Andy, but consensually ‘take’
him, you know?” New York magazine’s “This Season’s Many Rape Jokes on
TV” covers the jokes being cracked and laughed at in sitcoms (see video
below):](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)