Dawn Images

After Meesha Shafi accused Ali Zafar of sexually harassing her the Pakistani public has been grappling with questions about sexual harassment -- some people seem to have the right idea, others don't.

Some are trying to take constructive steps to battle harssment, and one such team working towards it is The Creative Process Projects.

The group has made a petition titled "On Sexual Harassment" which calls for all to stand in support of victims rather than silencing them.

It states, "As artists, writers, and cultural practitioners, we stand with Meesha Shafi, and all other survivors of sexual harassment that have come forward, or are yet to be vocal about their trauma."

Images reached out to the people behind the petition, Natasha Malik and Abdullah Qureshi who said, "After Meesha Shafi made a public statement about sexual harassment, we witnessed a lot of people, especially from within the arts/culture community, making very problematic statements and assumptions that are definitely reflective of a wider, deeply entrenched problem of victim blaming and silencing."

"Several discussions ensued amongst our group and others within our community as well, and we all had very strong opinions on it. We decided that we should formalise this as a statement with other creative practitioners contributing to it as well. We were definitely surprised because a lot of our effort was focused on putting the statement together; we were uncertain as to what to expect."

The online petition further goes on to explain that "as with the film industry, the art world in Pakistan too is structured by sexism and misogyny," and asks institutes to initiate dialogues which can help in "instituting/ enforcing sexual harassment policies".

Prominent names from the country have signed the petition so far, namely fashion designers Khadija Rahman, Khadija Shah, Rehan Bashir and transgender model Kami Sid

The petition says that it is time to "re-evaluate the current approach towards what we consider ‘evidence’ of such incidents" as our law has failed to protect the victim and in fact "aide the accused and silence the voice of the victim / survivor." Once we allow victims to come forth with their stories without judgement, the sheer volume will may help broadened the law on this issue.

Prominent names from the country have signed the petition so far, namely fashion designers Khadija Rahman, Khadija Shah, Rehan Bashir and transgender model Kami Sid, and Pakistani writers like Bina Shah and Mahwash Ajaz.

Bina Shah told Images that she "signed the petition because I felt it was a strongly-worded statement about sexual harassment and what happens to those victims who speak out against it."

She adds, "They need support and solidarity and by signing, I felt I was able to give that. I liked its specificity to the arts and institutes that teach the arts and other cultural practices. I've been seeing various blogs come out in the media saying that the #MeToo movement isn't relevant to Pakistan, or that it will fail because it has no context, and this petition takes a firm stance against that defeatist, sexist attitude as well."

The three fashion designers also explained why they chose to sign the petition.

Khadija Rahman believes “This is the sort of petition that everyone should sign. We cannot allow women who are harassed to be shamed like this so that others become afraid of speaking out. It’s very regressive and I signed it on behalf of all the many women I know who have been sexually exploited at some point or the other in their lives. What a woman wears or what lifestyle she follows is completely irrelevant to this issue. Even women wearing veils get harassed.”

“The fact that many of the people who are shaming Meesha are women is particularly shocking because I know that most of them have personally suffered harassment or have friends who have endured it. How can they doubt another woman for speaking out?” she said.

“I am a big supporter of equal rights and women’s rights in Pakistan as well as on a global level,” said Rehan Bashir. “For far too long, women have been expected to shut up, whether it is someone as empowered as Meesha or a woman who belongs to the lower economic strata but is still out there, working hard, staying quiet when she suffers.

He added, “I know so many other women who have been harassed but they refuse to speak out about it because they don’t want to be publicly maligned. This culture of silence is disturbing and the reason why I, and many others, chose to sign this petition is because we felt that we could no longer stay compliant in the unnecessary shaming of a woman just because she spoke out. It’s not about taking one person or the other’s side, it’s about standing up against a wrong that is common in our society. this victim shaming has to stop and it’s about time the men think twice before they behave in an inappropriate, unwelcome way with a woman.”

Khadijah Shah said, “I signed the petition because, as a woman, I felt that the harassment that she was being subjected to because of her gender was completely wrong.”

“The notions people have about a woman’s propriety are heartbreaking and we have to speak out against this unfathomable notion that a woman is asking for harassment just because she speaks or dresses in a certain way. I am not taking any sides by supporting this cause. It’s just something I feel very strongly about.”

The Creative Process Projects team is proud of how far they've coming so far with over 200 signatures. "The feedback has been varying from unconditional support, to total silence. There are those whose basis for signing is whether they are on Meesha Shafi or Ali Zafar's side."

"Some don't wish to hurt personal relations with Zafar, or feel signing will adversely affect his career. Some are in agreement with the full statement but take issue with Shafi being the catalyst. There is also some cynicism around the #MeToo movement; we have included the hashtag in our statement, and in some cases it seems to discourage people from signing because of how they view the movement itself. Some people prefer to stay entirely silent on the matter."

"What we also find to be very interesting is that the majority of our signatories are from our generation which seems more comfortable and ready to take explicit stances. It is a generation that is identifying with politics and very keen to connect art with ground realities."

"On the whole, the response has been heartening. We are already discussing what the next step should be which may include getting in touch directly with art and design institutions to address this issue and understand how it is being dealt with."