Every few months we erupt into a moral outrage over a reported rape case - protests are organized, a public hanging is demanded - and then we swiftly move on to the next news cycle. There’s no engagement with the underlying structural issues - just a desire to pacify a bloodlust

While expressing collective anger on these issues is undeniably important, it’s gotten performative to a fault. We demand justice on twitter as if we’re surrounded by institutions eager to hear us out. But what does that ‘justice’ we demand even look like? What does itconsist of?

Rape investigation practices in our country are built on deeply patriarchal premises. Survivors are quite literally ‘raped’ by the state when they go to report what happened to them - this is called the two finger test, through which our state tests the ‘rape-ability’ of a woman

Even if a WMLO disagrees with the test, judges demand it - if your vagina is ‘elastic’, then you’re deemed too promiscuous to be telling the truth about sexual violence. When we ask for justice - this is the process we are condemning rape survivors to

But it isn’t just the two finger test - it goes far beyond that. The medico legal officers in karachi don’t even have the equipment required to label rape kits, they don’t have lights, or even a bed for rape survivors to lie on while their bodies are ‘inspected’ by the state

The MLO office at JPMC has a filthy leather couch in a tiny paan stained room without any lights or equipment - the WMLOs working on these cases are repeatedly harassed, blackmailed, and refused security. When we tried raising funds to build capacity I was told by Shireen Jamali

to distribute sweets in one of the wards if I wanted to help so much, and to recognize that I was young and naive and didn’t know what I was talking about. I was also told that the WMLOs aren’t given appropriate resources because they’re ‘dirty’ and don’t know how to use them.

The investigating officers tasked with putting together a rape case aren’t sensitized on the issue, aren’t appropriately salaried and are extremely over worked. The ultimate ‘justice’ served is delivered on the basis of the case they build.

But perhaps worst of all is civil society itself - we worked on a rape case once that took place at a hospital with an MS who was a convicted rapist and a PPP member. Feminist groups quickly distanced themselves from the issue. Our battles are selective, reactionary, momentary

So I’m sorry but your call to justice sounds extremely hollow - there is no such thing as justice for marginalized gendered bodies in this country. There is only pain and violence and erasure. If you find yourself outraged, maybe start by recognizing that you are complicit

Start by holding the institutions around you accountable - from the military (that has weaponized rape during war repeatedly), to the political establishment, to legislative institutions. Your momentary, performative anger serves no one.