Samar Khan, a Pakistani female award-winning cyclist, has said that a biker sexually harassed her while she was cycling in Islamabad. Khan, who was also a WWF ambassador, released a video on social media in which she narrated the incident of harassment.
She said the incident happened in the evening while she was cycling. The cyclist reported the man was on a motorbike touched her inappropriately, groped her, and ran. She recorded her video in the middle of the road. The cyclist commented that “cycling is not safe for women in Pakistan”.
In her video, Khan described the harasser. She said he was wearing a maroon shirt and was presumably returning from work since he had a bag.
Samar Khan, award-winnig Pakistani cyclist, sexually harassed while cycling in Rawalpindi.
Last night, a mother of two kids was gang-raped on Lahore motorway in front of her kids. Another 5-years-old girl was raped & burned to death in Karachi, last week. pic.twitter.com/w0luFst4Pp
— Akif Khattak (@iamAkifKhan) September 10, 2020
The cyclist tried to chase the harasser but could not since she was on a cycle. She asserted the incident happened on a busy road. The cyclist did not blame anyone, neither the men nor the government. But she went on to ask that how can people chose to ignore an incident of a woman being harassed in the public.
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“At the time I was being harassed there were other people around driving by but they chose to ignore and move past, and not react,” she said.
Khan is a Pakistani cyclist. She is the first woman to rode cycle to an elevation of 4,500 meters Biafo Glacier in the Karakoram Mountains of Gilgit Baltistan.
She reported the incident just a day after the grisly incident of a woman being gang-raped on a Lahore-Sialkot motorway in front of her children. The woman was stranded along with her children on the motorway after her car ran out of petrol.
Read more: ‘Hang rapists publicly’: Horrific motorway gang-rape case shocks Pakistan social media
The incident has gripped the entire with shock and fear. Now, the latest account of sexual harassment by Samar Khan again calls attention to the alarming situation of public spaces becoming increasingly unsafe for women in Pakistan.