“I’m just grateful that he didn’t kill me!”
Shama had removed memories from an incident at university when she rejected a boy’s offer. The boy had taken things hard hard enough, and Shama had to undergo constant catcals of his friends when she exceeded them, as well as verbal intimidation in class using derogatory words but ambiguous to target it.
It had wreaked havoc on Shama, but she never looked for help with her family or teachers. She told her small group, mainly women, who could not help. She felt vulnerable and anxious throughout her stay after that and was even about to give up.
Now Shama works and thought that the university episode was behind her, but the murder of Sana Yousuf by a harasser triggered all the negative feelings she felt so many years ago. She is unable to face them and asked for help.
Shama is not the only one affected by the murder of the adolescent. According to a mental health practitioner based in Karachi, the number of girls and women aged 10 to 60 arrives for sessions after the murder of Sana Yousuf has increased to more than 50 per day.
The mental health practitioner has added that girls and women undergo provocative trauma following the murder of the adolescent, who occurs when an individual learns or intends to speak of traumatic events felt by others, which leads to negative psychological impacts. This can happen by exposure to media, such as news or social media, and can cause symptoms similar to those felt by direct victims of trauma.
* Asma, which is one of the main income of her family, goes to work and coming from public transport. Since the murder, she felt extremely vulnerable and has been unable to face stress, which is why she contacted a mental health practitioner.
“I travel to work using public transport, and every day I am mistreated and harassed by random men of all ages. I feel anxious. I cannot share this with my family because they will not be able to help me and I will feel anxious. I cannot leave my job. It is difficult to work under constant stress. ”
She said, “I never thought of raising my voice. And now with this incident, I will never say anything because I fear that someone will kill me. ”
* Farhana, who planned to start a food vlog during her summer vacation. She created an ID and started to download faceless content, but now she reconsiders that.
“I disabled my account because I receive extremely strange comments in my DM. They can’t even see my face, and even then, the comments are scary. I’m just afraid that I can offend someone, and they kill me.”
Marium, sixty, said Marium, recalling the harassment she experienced when she was younger: “A woman could not walk in a public zone without someone throwing a paper with their number, inviting her to tea or coffee. I felt right away.
Marium said she was happy to say nothing about these men, who knew what consequences she should have faced. “I’m happy not to have a girl; Otherwise, she would have suffered all abuses silently. ”
Marium said that despite all the empowerment of girls and women, women and girls are targeted and are still vulnerable today, social media is just another platform where they can be mistreated and harassed.
All these women fear that any action that can be interpreted as a rejection can lead to violence. This invisible power causes fear and stress in women, recalling bad memories.
Umar Hayat, the man accused in the case of the murder of Sana Yousuf, is a tyrant and a harasser who probably has low self-esteem and is a sub-performative.
Raised in a society that gives boys a privileged status according to their sex, some develop a grandiose illusion. They believe in their importance, which is reflected in their parents and the others. They are starting to believe that they have the right to do themselves all the time. Rejection is unacceptable and is a punishable act. Their swollen self -image and their ego does not allow them to see women as individuals who only exist if they are linked to a man.
This is why Umar Hayat probably believed that Sana, an accomplished young woman, was online trying to attract attention, and therefore, he should claim it before someone else. His rejection of his “offer” was a crime in his mind which had to be punished.
Associations and cybercriminals, like Hayat, are intimidators and generally weak. They have never achieved anything in life and are jealous of those who did it. They want to dominate others and improve their social status. They may have low self -esteem and want to feel better about them, and the only way to do it is trying to control others.
Incidents like the murder of the teenager who was just going to make her life, making online content, affect not only young girls but older women. It reveals how vulnerable they are, which leads to finding comfort in anonymity, and many withdraw from the public.
In this case, many will withdraw from online spaces, reducing their presence, which can embrace the stalkers, attackers and criminals to believe that they have power on women even online. It will also send a message to online users, especially women, that these intimidators are more powerful and can harm. And in the case of Sana, he realized.
Harassment and online abuses are a global problem for vulnerable children, especially children, women and the trans community. According to UN women, “millions of women and girls are affected by digital violence and the technology of violence facilitated each year. Studies suggest that between 16 and 58% of women have experienced this type of violence. Data from different regions confirm that violence facilitated by technology against women occurs everywhere. ”
The data has been still simplified by UN women, in regions highlighting the severity of the situation: 50% of women over 18 have undergone a form of abuse facilitated by technology during their life in 12 countries through Eastern Europe and Central Asia; 60% of women’s women in Arab states have experienced online violence and 28% from data collected in five sub -Saharan African countries.
The data from Worldmetrics.org reveal that around 41% of women and 37% of men have known cyberstalking in their lives. Data on the Trans community is not available. He also adds that more than 70% of cyber -referring victims experience significant emotional distress, and 60% of cyberstalking victims also experience offline harassment. However, only 1 in 3 victim of CYBER -TLISHING reports the incident to the police.
According to an international plan and CNN research as equals that have collected data from 600 women and girls aged 13 to 25 in nine countries have found that girls and women are often harassed online and 1 in 10 (11%) had “ Faced with online experiences harmful daily or almost daily ”, while 40% of them were harassed at least once a month.
Laws can help protect people online, but more importantly, actions are necessary that can dissuade attackers, stalkers and other criminals to continue and harass others online.
Online allies, including men, can be created to help encourage and empower young people, women and trans people to feel safe and stay online. If a threat is born, they can help counter it by identifying and ashamed the authors and quickly informs the authorities.
The authorities must develop and apply a system that protects not only online people but also offline, because, as we have seen in the unfortunate case of Sana Yousuf, online threats can result in the real and offline world with deadly consequences.
It’s time to make social media safe for vulnerable people.
* The names have changed on request
Warning: The points of view expressed in this play are the own writers and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of PK Press Club.TV.
