It's happened many times before: whenever a government wants to divert attention from its failures, some geniuses in Islamabad think of making hijab compulsory, initially for school girls and then for female government employees. Ultimately it has to happen: voters soon realize that women cannot be blamed for inflation, rapes and corruption. But our politicians think they can get away with everything, until they are forced to flee when the tipping point is reached.

Most of the men in Pakistan actually believe that women are responsible for all our problems, including earthquakes and floods. They advise their sons not to get too close to women, as if women's bodies emanate some radiation that will make men impotent. A man I know, a staunch Jamate Islami member, refused to have physiotherapy done by a woman. When he was in hospital a few months back, he didn't want female nurses near him. It's a miracle that such men marry at all and have sex with their wives. 

So the government of Imran Khan thinks that if women stop wearing jeans, prices of essentials will return to what they were three years ago, men will stop stripping women naked and raping them and street crimes will disappear. But who will they blame if the situation in the country becomes even worse?

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