Women wearing less clothes impact men: Pakistan PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has come under fire for repeating that an increase in sexual assault cases in the country is related to how women dress.

Imran Khan in an interview with HBO's Axios stated, "If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they are robots. It’s just common sense".

"This is cultural imperialism. Whatever is acceptable in our culture, must be acceptable everywhere else. It's not," he added.

The comments made by Imran Khan in the interview sparked widespread uproar on social media, with opposition leaders and journalists voicing their displeasure with the misogynistic worldview.

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"Imran Khan is r*pe apologist and hates women,"one of the users, Anaya Khan, wrote on Twitter alongside a video of the interview.

Khan's attitude on victim-blaming in cases of sexual violence was met with disappointment by Reema Omer, a legal expert with the International Commission of Jurists.

“Disappointing and frankly sickening to see PM Imran Khan repeat his victim blaming regarding reasons for sexual violence in Pakistan Men are not “robots”, he says. If they see women in skimpy clothes, they will get “tempted” and some will resort to rape Shameful!”, Reema tweeted.

During a live television interview in April, Khan blamed "obscenity" for the surge in sexual abuse cases in Pakistan and recommended women to cover themselves to avoid temptation. "Purdah is all about staying away from temptation. It takes a lot of resolve to avoid it and not everyone has it," he stated.

Hundreds of people mobilised in Islamabad to demand an apology from him for his remarks, and a demonstration was conducted. The demonstrators chastised Khan for "victim-blaming" and demanded an apology for his remark.

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