Social media influencer and Tiktoker, Imsha Rehman, has been a hot topic within the country for days now, following the circulation of an alleged obscene video that went viral across various platforms.
The video was wildly shared on WhatsApp and other social media popular across Pakistan, forcing the Tiktoker to delete all her social media handles.
Despite days having passed since the leak, the public continues to share the video and obsesses over the details. The obsession with what a woman does in private life really begs the question: what are the priorities of a nation supposedly suffering from a crippling economic and political crisis?
Pakistan by all accounts is one of worst places to be a woman. From skewed literary rates (58 per cent literary rate for women compared to 70 per cent for men), to rampant underage marriages of young girls (21 per cent, as per UNICEF).
According to the Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum, Pakistan is ranked 153 out of 156 countries for “Worst Place to be a Woman”. This includes being denied basic rights in terms of economic participation, educational attainment, health and even political empowerment.
And that’s not all! The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported in 2020 that at least 475 women were killed in the name of honour within a single year. Women exercising basic rights to marry whom they want is seen as justification to take their lives by the male relatives in this country.
The World Bank similarly reported in 2021 that women’s labour force participation in Pakistan was a mere 22 per cent. Barriers includes cultural norms, lack of access to education and limited job opportunities. With no independent earning source and complete financial dependency on husbands, few women can escape physical and sexual abuse.
Given such dire conditions, what then possesses a public of 240 million people to obsess over a single TikToker’s video?
While Imsha Rehman’s fans defended her, vast majority have been blaming the victim of a possible deepfake (fake videos created using artificial intelligence, or AI for short) as having released the video herself for ‘cheap publicity’!
This begs the question, what do these women gain besides public censure, ridicule and outright abuse in a conservative, patriarchal society like Pakistan’s?
Rabi Pirzada’s entire career was utterly destroyed when her personal images were leaked.
Most importantly, why is the leak of a viral video of a Tiktoker being concentrated on more than the utterly depraved, horrific news of a pregnant young woman burnt and then chopped up by her in-laws?
The gruesome incident occurred in Daska, located in Sialkot district. Her remains were later discovered in three different sacks stuffed inside a drain.
She was pregnant as the time of her brutal murder, and was a mother to a three-year-old.
Why is it that cases of brutality against women barely make a blip on Pakistanis’ minds, hardly covered by news outlets or on social media, but a (possibly fake) viral video of Tiktoker, Imsha Rehman, does?
Imsha was forced to deactivate her TikTok and Instagram accounts. A screenshot of her TikTok profile–also shared widely online–read, “Jab tak video viral hay[,] maine ID off kar di hai” (Till the time video is viral, I have deactivated my account).
She is also not the first woman who is a victim of a possible deepfake or having her personal life leaked online. Fellow TikToker, Minahil Malik, faced a similar privacy breach earlier this year.
Both woman, despite being victims of a horrific crime, have been overwhelmingly accused of by the public of orchestrating the incident on purpose to gain attention and expand their social media following.
A female victim of rape is accused of bringing it upon herself, or deliberately orchestrating it (!) to get publicity. Why does no one ask what kind of publicity can women even ‘enjoy’ in a country where they will be abused and condemned?
Time and again we have seen women’s careers or lives destroyed by deepfakes or leaked personal pictures. Why are fingers always pointed towards the victim and not the culprits?
Why is there so little scrutiny regarding why women are subjected to humiliating deepfakes/leaks and why are the perpetrators allowed to act with impunity? Why is the focus primarily on directing abuse and censure at the victims – mostly women – rather than pursuing justice against those who create and distribute such sickening content? Or those who leak someone’s personal images?
