And it happened again, for over a hundredth time in the very same district, a child got abducted, raped, killed, and thrown away as if she was garbage. I look at the innocence spread on that face and can’t escape from the questions of ‘how’ and ‘why’. The sad part is that Kasur, and the entire Pakistan, is not an alien to such an incident. It wasn’t one Zainab who got treated like that. It was not a one-time occurrence.
And an even sadder part is that that we haven’t been able to mitigate the situation. How many children will face the brutality? How many kids will leave for a Quran recital and never come back? How many tears will the parents shed before the thirst of our barren hearts is quenched? Let us, for an instance, think what will happen next, because we all know it quite well.
The truth is that we’ve failed, and we haven’t failed one Zainab, we have failed an entire generation. We have failed as a nation, once again, and we will continue to do so, because we are as senseless as one can be.
The pictures of that seven year old will take place of the profile pictures of many. The smile she’s wearing will haunt us for some days. There will be talks. Curses will be shot at the rapists and murderers. We will, once again, remember Husain Khanwala incident, and ‘mourn’ with those who’ve shed many tears already. We will promise to give them, or at least to give Zainab’s dead soul, some justice.
Read more: Media hype is not going to last much longer!
Days will turn into weeks and then, one after the other, the profile pictures will switch back to our own faces, the talks will grow less frequent, the curses minimised, and the promises buried under the same rubble where Zainab was found. We will bury our integrity and it will lay forgotten until something happens, again.
The Kasur incident highlights our sickness and presents a picture of our haplessness in the face of all this brutality. The sole fact that we are becoming accustomed to such news is as sad as anything can ever be. There are a dozen names which are now being highlighted, girls of under ten years of age, who’ve been raped and murdered in one district.
If only my words could bring that child back, I wouldn’t go quiet, not even for an instance. But the fact is, this is all pointless. My words don’t matter.
I wonder how many Zainabs, Aishas, Emaan Fatimas, Fouzias will we have to sacrifice before understanding the gravity of the situation! Do we have the courage to look in the eyes of the lifeless picture of Zainab and answer all the questions she is asking? Do we have the belief that nothing of this sort will happen again? Can we, without a shred of lie, promise our children that they don’t have to be scared?
Read more: Little Zainabs will continue to be raped, murdered & dumped on…
I might sound a cold-hearted pessimist, but to be true there is nothing I can think of to make things better. If only #JusticeForZainab could guarantee a hint of justice to that angel, I’d be flooding the social media with countless posts now. If my voice could somehow ease the pain of her parents who’d gone to serve the Benevolent, forgetting, for once, that His creation is anything but, I’d be screaming at the top of my lungs.
There are a dozen names which are now being highlighted, girls of under ten years of age, who’ve been raped and murdered in one district.
If only my words could bring that child back, I wouldn’t go quiet, not even for an instance. But the fact is, this is all pointless. My words don’t matter. My rhetoric is meaningless. Whatever I do, whatever I say, it’s not going to make anything better.
Read more: Is society responsible for Zainab tragedy?
The truth is that we’ve failed, and we haven’t failed one Zainab, we have failed an entire generation. We have failed as a nation, once again, and we will continue to do so, because we are as senseless as one can be.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy.