Rawalpindi – Do Nambar

Women are rare on Pakistan streets. But when they are, mostly they are totally covered

February 21, 2006

I have written many stories of examples of male to male sexual harrassments in Pakistan (personal experiences) and it’s unfair if I dont write the sexual harassments that happen to women, which are far more common.

I was in a crowded bus today, heading to Islamabad. When I entered the bus, the seats next to the drivers (supposed to be seats for ladies, and it is really pronounced as LADIES instead of ‘aurat’ in Urdu) was occupied by some men also. The ticket men allowed me to sit in front seat also, maybe because I was foreigner. Then there were about five seats left for the ‘ladies’. But as there was only one woman passengers, the seats were again occupied by male passengers.

Then everytime coming a female passenger, those male passengers have to move away and give the seats to the women so that no women will sit next to unrelative males. Something that not happen in Indonesia. I was just thinking at that time, life is quite complicated here, even the seats have to consider the genders. But this difficulty is not without reason, as just on the same bus, 20 minutes later, I found the answer.

The women sitting in public buses all wear Muslim dress. If you go to university of Art in Lahore and see that the students wearing jeans and unveiled, they have their own vehicle so dont need to risk the life in the public buses. In our buses today, among the five women, three are invisible, except their pairs of eyes. The other two wearing normal hejab, one was about 40, and the other, probably her daughter.

Then the elder woman screamed and sweared. I didnt really know what happened, and as someone told me before, as women in Pakistan were virtually removed from the communal life -‘in order to protect their safety’, they have developed world class level of ability of swearing. I was happy I didnt understand proper Urdu for swearing, but I could see that she was terribly angry. Apparantely the man sitting behind her harassed her by touching her hair or neck. I was surprised either that the case developed violently.

All women in the bus condemned and sweared the man, whom I think is also strange, still tried to harass old women in shalwar qamees (her hijab didnt cover her head properly, but that’s not the case). They said that the man should be taken to the police. Exactly when I got off the bus in Zero Point, and there were some policemen on the roadside. The conductor was asked by those women to call the police. The bored police guys was excited that they have chance to show their authority. The conductor said to the police, that there was a “do nambar guy” in the bus. Do nambar, literally means Number Two, is an Urdu slank to express anything bad. Bad quality chinese products are called as do nambar products, guys who have been f*cked by another guys are also called as do nambar guys (strange that guys who f*ck another guys are not do nambar), and apparently the sex maniacs are also do nambar people.

The harrassing guy, dressing in black clothes with no expression in his face, I dunno whether he was afraid or just submissive, was slapped by the police as soon as he reached the earth (from the bus). He was taken to the police post next to the crossroad. If I may tell you, police posts, the 2 x 2 metres square hut, are on the top of the lists of the most scary place on earth. I had my own experience in Kyrgyzstan and somehow when I saw this poor guy forced to go the scary dark room, I was reminded to my own experience, when I was taken to a post and surrounded by seven big fat policemen.

The ladies were asked to be witnesses, but it seems that they prefered to continue their journey and quite satisfied that the “Do nambar guy” was taken by police. And the poor guy being the object of slappings of each policeman. Every police slapped him very loud, I could hear from outside the post, and I saw from the glass also. The guy tried to escape and the more he tried, the harder the slapping on his face. You can see that the policemen also enjoying this kind of punishment (Javanese word for this: bancakan).

Later on that day, I met a Chinese student studying Arabic in Islamabad. A girl from Yunnan, a Muslim Han, and wearing hijab. I asked her about her experience and she told me she had sometimes sexual harassments also, despite of her hijab. “Zheli de nanren buhao….”(The men here are no good), said her.

Not only Pakistan has separate seats in public transports for women, it’s also in India and Japan. The ‘chikan’ of Japanese subway trains are notorious in touching female passengers’ bottom.

So ladies and girls, I really wonder what is the common reaction of Indonesian girls when they are harassed. A friend of mine told me that she has slapped someone who grabbed her bottom. I bet Indonesian girls are more phisically stronger, welll….. sum of my female friends even practised martial arts: karate, wushu, etc.