Pakistan rights activist claims harassment at President House

A rights activist in Pakistan has accused a senior government official of harassing her while she was visiting the President House for an event.

Maria Iqbal Tarana, the founder of an organization Aam Taleem, which works in the field of education, shared her ordeal in a series of tweets.

Tarana said that at the event where she was invited to the President House, she was told that she did not belong there after she refused the uncomfortable proximity of the suspect.

“After refusing the uncomfortable physical proximity of a responsible, I was told that I did not belong there,” she said. “If I do not let you stand extremely close to me, doesn’t mean I don’t have a standing!” she added.

Demanding an investigation into the matter, she also named the alleged harasser. “The person in question was Afaaq Ahmed, Chief Protocol Officer, the matter needs to be investigated and the responsible be punished,” she wrote.

In a video posted on Tuesday, she asked, “If the men from the second-highest office in Pakistan don’t know how to behave with women, then who does?”

The activist again took to Twitter on Tuesday and wrote that she has been working in “misogynist society for the last 10 years”.

“Working in misogynist society for the last 10 years, I have lost my most beautiful asset ‘smile’,” she wrote.

Tarana is former Chairperson Commission on status of women in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Youth Forum for Kashmir and People’s commission for Minority rights.