Weeks after Kerala Excise Commissioner Rishiraj Singh found himself neck-deep in controversy for saying that men who stare at women for more than 14 seconds should be penalized, the top cop seems to have a fan from across the border.
In an article published in Pakistani newspaper ‘Dawn’ on Wednesday titled “The 14 second stare”, attorney and human rights activist Rafia Zakaria said that the commissioner’s statement was not absurd, but interesting and almost revolutionary.
Saying that the commissioner’s remarks invoked ire because Indian men like to stare, she termed staring at women to be the glue that binds males from the sub-continent together.
“Learning to put up with staring is possibly the first line in the book of male dominance that is the contemporary Pakistani story. Men stare and stare and stare — old men and young men; bearded men and clean-shaven men; the supposedly religious and the avowedly secular,” she writes.
She also said that the male of South Asian species does not generally admit to staring at women, and often deny doing so when confronted.
The writer also draws parallels with animals, the male of which, resort to staring for more than 14 seconds as an act of domination.
Calling Rishiraj Singh’s remarks as “groundbreaking”, Rafia Zakaria said that men will understand how insulting it is to be stared at, only when they are subjected to the same.
However, she then declares that men would not want to take part in this experiment, for “who wants to experience something disgusting”.
Saying that staring may be acceptable in the animal kingdom but not for the human species, she adds that the commissioner is a venerable and hopeful exception to this.