14-second stare remark: Kerala top cop Rishiraj Singh wins praise from Pakistan
Kerala excise commissioner Rishiraj Singh's remark on the male gaze had evoked mixed reactions in the state, with some questioning the rationale behind it and others lauding him for encouraging women to stand on their own.
Now, the IPS officer has got support from beyond the borders with Pakistani newspaper 'Dawn' publishing an article hailing him.
In an article titled 'The 14-second stare', columnist Rafia Zakaria explains how Pakistani women also suffer from male gaze and hails Rishiraj Singh as a 'man who realises that for staring to stop, it must be fined and punished, exposed as perverse and disgusting'.
In early August, Singh had told a women's gathering that any man found staring at a woman for more than 14 seconds could be put in jail.
"Pakistan is also a country of staring men. Any Pakistani woman, young or old, rich or poor, has her staring stories — tales of men who stare at women in buses, at school, restaurants, banks, work and in parks. All of them will tell you that there is no corner of Pakistan that is not populated by men who stare," Rafia writes in her column.
Rafia adds: "Staring at women is indeed the glue that binds the male species of the subcontinent together. They may disagree on politics, be at each other’s throats over religion, stab and shoot at the provocations of sectarianism or the particulars of ethnicity, but they all believe in staring, everywhere and always."
The author, concludes the article by calling the commissioner from Kerala as 'a venerable and hopeful exception'.
Rafia Zakaria is an attorney and human rights activist.
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