Dawn Images

Days after news broke of a woman's assault at the Greater Iqbal Park in Lahore on Independence Day, many people have begun victim blaming and questioning why the woman was at a public park on Independence Day. Ali Gul Pir might be a comedian, but had a very serious response to these victim blamers.

"If we accept [your theory] that she went for a TikTok meeting, if we accept [your theory] that the guy with her was her boyfriend, and we accept that the next day she posted a picture in which she looked happy, even if we accept all that, all your theories, what those 400 men did was wrong, was a crime and was horrible," he said in a series of videos posted on his Instagram Story.

"That doesn't change. Whatever justifications you give, that she was dancing or whatever she was doing, what those people did was a crime, only a morally corrupt person could do this. Those people should be punished, there should be no ifs and buts."

He told people to stop justifying the woman's assault.

"'Why did she go there, Minar-e-Pakistan, a girl, shouldn't have gone there'. Is Minar-e-Pakistan your drawing room? It's a public place. For citizens. For Pakistanis. It's not just for criminals and boys. Minar-e-Pakistan isn't a den of prostitution right?" Gul Pir said. "'Don't go there'. Then where should they go? Don't go in public, don't go there, don't go here. Then where?" he asked, rightfully questioning the shrinking number of safe public spaces for women.

The comedian then narrated his own experiences at concerts in Pakistan in the 90s. When I was 13 or 14 years old I went to a lot of concerts, like those by Noori and Junoon, he said. "And I witnessed this myself. Fifty to 200 men used to attack couples. They would beat up the guy, tear off the girl's clothes, molest her and harass her. Then the police would come, beat them up and they ran," he said, adding that he had seen this four to five times at concerts.

"It was happening then. It's part of our society, this ting has been happening in our society for a long time. You've seen a video of it [the Minar-e-Pakistan assault] and now you're aware but this was happening even back then," he reminded his followers. "Let's correct it, no more justifications. If someone justifies this in front me, I don't want to talk to that guy. Ignorant people," he said.

"They take it as a hit to their ego. 'This talk that's going on, it's hit my ego, they're talking about men, so I should justify it'. Just shut up! Just stop! Let's kill the ego and rectify it."

He called on men to stop harassment wherever they see it. "When you hear jokes or comments being made about it, stop them. Tell them it's wrong," Gul Pir implored.

"Condemn those people, isolate those people, educate those people! Let's make it into a solution rather than an ego thing. 'I didn't do it bro, not all men', f*** that shit. Let's just fix it, let's make this society better. Simple."

Thousands of people have taken to social media to condemn the assault and several celebrities have also condemned it, calling it sexual terrorism. That there are people who are still blaming the victim is horrifying and we're glad public figures are speaking up about it. Like Ali Gul Pir said, there are no justifications for what happened.