A little more than four months ago, the Governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, was gunned down in broad daylight for standing up for the rights of a poor Christian woman.  On his death, many in Pakistan asked, “Well, why did he speak up for Aasia Bibi?  Didn’t he know this would happen?”

Two months ago, Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, was also gunned down for demanding changes to Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws.  People pondered, “Well, why did he leave home without his security detail?  Didn’t he see what they did to Taseer?”

Last month, the Supreme Court acquitted five men accused of publicly gang-raping Mukhtar Mai on the orders of a tribal council.  The media asked, “Well, why did she file an appeal to begin with?  Didn’t she know she’d lose?”

All three cases featured innocent victims suffering cruel injustice.  All three cases featured Pakistani society’s propensity to blame victims.  How do we explain societal victim blaming in Pakistan?

A social worker will tell you that individuals victim blame because it feels too scary to embrace the reality that good people can get hurt, raped, or killed when they’ve done nothing wrong.  It’s a frightening prospect to place all the responsibility on the perpetrator because that means that you, as an individual, are powerless to prevent harm to yourself.  So in order to preserve a sense of self-safety, individuals lay blame on victims.  The victim’s behavior is what led to the harm.  If we don’t act like the victim, then harm won’t come to us.

The individual response ultimately translates to an intentional and conscious distortion of reality.  The individual is choosing to alter his or her perception of reality to put them at ease; so they don’t have to be afraid.

That is why Pakistanis victim blame.

Victim blaming absolves society of reality and in turn, responsibility for the ills that befall others.  What burden does society bear when the victim is to blame?

This refusal to embrace reality and take responsibility also manifests itself in the widespread traction of conspiracy theories in Pakistan.  The Taliban bomb a Pakistani market?  No, no, it must be Indian agents giving the Taliban a bad name.  Baloch insurgency on the rise?  No, no, it must be the Americans trying to sabotage the Chinese in Gwadar.

These types of conspiracy theories, coupled with the reality disconnect of victim blaming, have impaired the ability of society to engage in rational public discourse.  Just pick up a newspaper or flip on a television.  See for yourself.

Pakistan is a nation rife with problems.  Daily life is full of injustices big and small.  Life is cheap.  Crime is growing.  Socio-economic progress is nonexistent.  Misery is casting its net wider and wider with every new natural disaster and act of terror.  It’s not surprising that Pakistani society seeks escape from reality and responsibility.

There are glimmers of hope though, because Pakistani society is of course, also endowed with great strengths.  There was an outpouring of generosity from ordinary Pakistanis for their compatriots ravaged by last year’s floods.  But then again, conspiracies also swirled that India caused the devastating flooding.

The buck needs to stop somewhere.  If Pakistanis don’t begin to take ownership of the problems that afflict their society, they risk being subsumed by a flood of reality from which there may be no recovery.