Jemima Goldsmith is the latest to react to PM Imran Khan’s statement linking rising rape cases to ‘fahashi’ or vulgarity in the society.
The former wife of PM Imran and the mother of his two sons, Jemima took to Twitter late on Wednesday to address his remarks and retweeted a Daily MAil article with the headline ‘Pakistan PM Imran Khan blames how women dress for rise in rape cases’.
He also advised women to cover up, and said, “This entire concept of purdah is to avoid temptation, not everyone has the willpower to avoid it,” as translated by Al Jazeera.
Days later on Wednesday, Jemima said that the news going around was misquoted or mistranslated because, “The Imran I knew used to say, “Put a veil on the man’s eyes, not on the woman”.”
Jemima also recalled another incident from when she was in Saudi Arabia to explain her stance. “I remember years ago being in Saudi Arabia and an elderly woman in an abaya and niqab was lamenting the fact that when she went out she was followed and harassed by young men,” she shared.
“The only way to get rid of them was to take her face covering OFF. The problem is not how women dress!”
Her tweets were met with mixed views, with many fundamentalists bashing her for indirectly promoting vulgarity or ‘disregarding what religion wants. However, many also backed her statements.
Jemima and PM Imran Khan were married for about nine years from 1995 to 2004, and share two sons, Suleiman and Qasim.
