Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) have passed a women’s protection bill that allows for men to publicly beat their wives lightly. You would be forgiven for checking the calendar and think it’s the 1st of April not the 1st of June after reading that ridiculous sentence, but unfortunately my friends this is a NOT a joke and this HAS been passed.

The bill urges men to beat their wives lightly (nice of them to ensure it’s only lightly) for any of the following:

• Refusing Sex
• Not washing after sex/menstruation
• Not dressing in compliance with husband’s wishes

And for bad behaviour such as

• Talking to strangers
• Giving money without their husband’s permission
• Talking too loudly

  

It goes without saying that this is an appalling and barbaric bill  that openly promotes domestic violence. The name “women’s protection bill” is laughably flooded with irony and hypocrisy . Unsurprisingly the passing of this bill has provoked many to hit out on Twitter using the hashtag #TryBeatingMeLightly, posing some very obvious threats of retaliation to any man who adheres to it.

The movement was initiated by photographer Fahhad Rajper, who has entitled it ‘A Portrait Series of Pakistani Women Reacting to Women Protection Bill’.

Here are just a select few of some of the strong women speaking out and their brilliant responses to an incredulous bill. You can see the full series on his Facebook page.

This is not a world I want to live in, do you? I don’t want my children, my daughters to live in a world where any country can pass a bill such as this boorish ‘Women’s Protection Bill’. It’s acts like these that can take the path to equality back ten, twenty, 100 steps, but it is movements like #TryBeatingMeLightly that restore my faith in humanity and my faith that some day the world will become a more equal society.

AJ x