E-magazine kick-starts debate on sex in Pakistan

Islamabad, Sept 11 (PTI) A leading portal has
kick-started a debate on "sex", the most widely searched
subject in Pakistan according to Google, by posting a
"provocative piece".

Pak Tea House, an online magazine, is inviting readers
"to examine the unspeakable problems of our society - sex or
lack thereof, being one of them".

"It is therefore an issue that concerns Pakistan at its
core: the hypocrisy relating to sexual desires and the
frustrations that are part of the baggage. We keep our mouths
shut; we're good at pretence, all for the sake of social
propriety," Raza Rumi, editor of the e-magazine wrote.

The portal got its first "provocative" post on the
subject by Qandeel Sham, a regular contributor.

He wrote: "Now obviously there is something disgustingly
wrong with a society that pushes a man to fulfill his sexual
needs in the form of bestiality. It's despairing to consider
the depths of desperation that would reduce a man to it. And
the blind hypocrisy with which everyone ignores the fact,
knowing fully well how widespread the act is.

"Skillfully pretending, for their entire lives, that
there is no pink elephant in the room, is truly a marvelous
quality unique to Pakistanis," Sham wrote generating a lot of
comments on Pak Tea House.

"A different, but still ugly, way that sexual frustration
manifests itself in Pakistan is incest, paedophilia and
'forced' homosexuality. There is no doubt in my mind that just
about every household in Pakistan would have a story to tell
about this," he wrote.

"Someone in Pakistan needs to open their mouth and
lambaste that dirty socio-psychological system which allows
these things to happen and then condones it by pretending
ignorant. God, how I wish there was a super-priest out there
somewhere who could exorcise such damning hypocrisy out of a
culture," Sham added.

In response to the post, a blogger known as Sherry wrote,
"Homosexual rape has a strong cultural root in this area, but
literature is virtually non-existent. There is a forced
silence on incest as well. Cases are hushed up. All these are
dismissed as 'westernisation' though we can trace the cultural
existence of these phenomena, especially homoerotic culture,
to times when the West was not tolerant at all."

Earlier, a post on the booming sex industry on Pak Tea
House had also generated interest.

In a post titled 'A dark comes to light', the magazine
posted a report from a foreign publication which claimed that
prostitution that was once relegated to dark alleys and small
red-light districts of the country was now seeping into many
neighbourhoods of the country's urban centres.

"As in many societies, access to technology, the internet
and mobile phones has only facilitated the sex trade in
Pakistan. 'Matchmaking' websites serve the male clientele,
while providing marketing for prostitutes," the report said.

Following the post, the magazine was flooded with
comments and the portal became sort of a meeting ground for
men and women.

"We in no way wanted to invite readers to leave their
numbers, email and chat IDs for nocturnal secretive
activities. But it happened. I have removed almost all the
comments that were left by men and women where invitations for
sexual liaison were made in the comments space. Yet, I am not
a prude and most of the authors at this forum are also not
inclined towards Victorian sensibilities," Rumi wrote in a
separate post.

He also wrote that some bloggers complained that Pak
Tea House was turning into a brothel.

".. it is true that the term sex invites attention and
clicks by the browsers. Google figures have time and again
shown the enormous searches for the term 'sex' emanating from
the Land of the Pure," he added.