A society where thousands of women lose their battle with breast cancer every year yet the same society has refused to take it up as a serious matter and has considered it a taboo.
It’s high time we address this important issue and an Islamabad-based girl tells how the job is done.
Fama Hasan took to Facebook to shut down trollers who she overheard discussing breast cancer in a disgraceful manner.
“Yesterday I got out of class and was walking to my car towards the gate when I passed a bunch of guys who seemed like they must be in the 7th or 8th semester,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
She outlined the whole conversation. “This was the conversation I overheard:
Guy 1: Oye wo kia kehrae thay? (Listen, what were they saying?)
Guy 2: Pata ni yara ‘Breast’ cancer ka kuch kerne aye thay. Ussi ka btaye jarae thay. *immature dirty giggles* (I don’t know, they were just talking about breast cancer)
Guy 3: *smirks* Ayeinnn!
All of the guys: *Erupt in laughter*,” she wrote in her post.
“I cringed all the way from university to home and I cringe as I type this. A society where basic human organs are sexualized to the point that even cancer related to it is some locker room banter joke for these boys just like we talk of the one trump said,” she added.
Fama further went on to set some facts straight for the ignorant bunch of boys. “Little do they realise that it kills more than 40,000 women every year in Pakistan alone and these are just only the cases that even luckily get reported. Little do they know that Pakistan has the highest incidence of breast cancer in Asia.”
“Little do they know that it is exactly this social setup because of which women are reluctant in medical checkups and sharing their issues, not even with their family members and ultimately lose their lives as the diagnosis only occurs at very late stages. God forbid some woman in their family suffers from this ever,” she wrote.
Fama believes that this reason is enough to support breast cancer awareness campaigns. “I have people constantly telling me that if you support a cause then do something, beth ker baatein kerne se kuch nai hoga (You can’t just sit and talk). To all of you, ‘do something’ se pehle beth ker awareness phelana aur samjhana zaruri hai (It’s important to talk about this issue and create awareness before acting). Cause when organisations do come to our institutions to take a step and ‘do something’, these are the illiterate idiots they get to deal with.
“So rant as much as you can. Talk, scream and yell as long as you know you are heard somewhere by someone. Do whatever you can. Everything counts,” wrote Fama.
She concluded her post with a lesson to be learnt by the trollers. “To those four guys, I crossed: Educate yourselves and those around you. Female bodies are not just objects. We are real humans with real diseases. I wish your porn addiction could have taught you otherwise,” she concluded.