Semiotics of rape in Pakistan: What’s missing in the digital illustrations?

Introduction

Usman (2018: 2–3) noted 4734 rape cases of women in Pakistan from 2004 to 2016, which must have been underreported due to issues of stigma, illiteracy, conservatism, and legal challenges. In Punjab, one of the four provinces of Pakistan, alone, police registered ‘3300’ cases of rape and ‘190’ cases of ‘attempted rape’ from January to December 2018 (State of Human Rights in 2018, 2019: 70). During 2019, around 3881-rape cases were registered in Punjab, Pakistan (Shah, 2020). In Pakistan, ‘at least 77 girls and 79 boys were raped or sexually assaulted in the first half of 2018, according to police reports, but none of the suspects had been convicted at time of writing and all had been released on bail’ (Human Rights Watch, 2019: 451). While the number of cases have been increasing throughout the decade, ‘regardless of several government and non-government efforts, such as Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act (PPWVA), the number of rape cases has increased from 1324 to 1512 in Punjab province’ alone in the first 5 months of 2019 as compared to 2018 (Mateen, 2019: 374). Rape causes trauma, severe depression, withdrawal, disinterest in studies, loss of happiness (Yousafzai, 2018), and in many cases, loss of life as well (Jamshed and Kamal, 2019).

‘Ideologies are expressed and generally reproduced in the social practices of their members, and more particularly acquired, confirmed, changed and perpetuated through discourse’ (van Dijk, 2006: 115). Gender ideologies that link masculinity to power and aggression and femininity to submissiveness or consider suffering as inevitable part of femininity function as a socio-cognitive and discursive tool to normalize and regulate violence in social practices, and to promote a gender-based ideology of victimhood through discourse. Discursive representations of a context can be ‘ideologically biased’ (van Dijk, 2006: 121). Repetitive use of certain semiotic resources and culturally accepted symbols is made by framing an issue, which implies making certain aspects of an issue more salient, for ideological purposes (Cvetkovic and Pantic, 2018; Machin, 2016) because discursive representations influence the minds of people, their choices, values, structures of thought or ideologies, thus helping the dominant groups institutionalize and maintain their power (van Dijk, 1996).

The cognitive cultural models or preconceived notions of gender, victimhood, and masculinity, and their ideological representations have made it common to consider men as perpetrators and women as victims of rape. Lonsway and Fitzgerald (1994: 134) define ‘rape myths’ as ‘attitudes and beliefs that are generally false but are widely and persistently held, and that serve to deny and justify male sexual aggression against women’. Rape myths, deeply rooted in stereotypes concerning sex roles, beliefs about the opposite sex, acceptance of interpersonal violence, and sexual conservatism, take various forms (Burt, 1980). Rape myths are perpetuated due to social acceptance of the inferior stature of women, restrictive gender roles for women, social judgments about the appearance, freedom, and character of women, and cultural beliefs about masculinity, victims and perpetrators (Burt, 1980; Hammond et al., 2011). Social acceptance of rape myths results in a vicious cycle of sexual violence against women (Kushmider, 2015). Discursive representations of rape also regulate stereotypes and rape myths, thus further victimizing the victim (Riaz, 2019) or in other words cause ‘secondary victimization behaviours’ (Campbell, 2005: 55) by changing the cultural orientation and perspectives toward sexual assaults and victimhood; therefore, considering its severity, negative effects, and stereotypical representation, it is important to understand the semiotic field of rape with reference to gender, victimhood, and context. Stereotypical rapes (Burt, 1980) highlighted through discursive representations and degree of endorsement with these myths among individuals may impact labeling, help-seeking behaviors, experiences of stigma, and negative responses to disclosure experienced by the victims and societies at large. Rape myths authenticated by inauthentic representations of rape victimology and sexual roles lead to multilayered victimization of the victim who is consequently asked unwanted questions, shamed, accused of over-reacting, judged, and harassed especially in patriarchal societies where honor is invested in the female body and sexual choices, honor is linked to social judgments and expectations, women are frequently judged, and social judgments pose a major threat to the victim, thus aggravating the situation for her (Riaz, 2019; Riaz and Rafi, 2019). The role of media in perpetuating rape myths, and concealing and highlighting certain realities is, therefore, important.

The present study, therefore, highlights how victims and perpetrators of rape have been socio-semiotically represented in the digital illustrations employed in the news or blogs on rape in Pakistan. It helps understand the contextual implications, possibilities for victims, association of rape with urban or rural settings, power dynamics concerning perpetrators, role of gender, stereotypical signs, and kinds of rape such as marital rape, child abuse, date rape, or revenge rape, etc. Socio-semiotic representation of rape involving missing visual signs and diverse representations has been highlighted by pinpointing the use of ideational metafunction suggested by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006).

In Pakistani context, Abbas and Jabeen (2020: 125) estimating prevalence of child abuse in Pakistan found that 41% of the 274 (39% females and 44% males) respondents who were fourth-year BS students disclosed having been sexually abused. Jamshed and Kamal (2019), studying views of 500 university students pinpointed that university students in Pakistan are gender-biased and believe in rape myths due to power associated with men. Due to the association of power and authority with men, female victims are further marginalized and instead of offering them support, they are judged, maltreated, and even killed in the name of honor. The results also indicated that 76.8% of students had more, while, 23.2% had less belief in rape myths. Garland et al. (2016) found that rape myths concerning rape survivors, rape perpetrators, and victim blaming could be observed in mainstream comic books. Pinciotti and Orcutt (2017) also explored the dynamics of victim-blaming and discussed that victim-blaming leads to PTSD, self-blame, and victimization in the future; however, social support can ensure a better attitude toward the female victim because less blame is attributed to the positively supported victims. In general, female victims are blamed by men and other women for experiencing sexual assault, and social support ensures less victim-blaming of women, while various social support conditions don’t affect the levels of the blame for men.

Haneef (2019) and Rana (2020) studied socio-semiotic representation of the news regarding the death penalty of rapists and semiotics of protest regarding Nirbhaya rape case in Delhi, respectively. Haneef (2019) noted that multimodal discursive representation of the news about the death penalty of four rape convicts was quite impactful. Rana (2020) observed how the streets of Delhi had turned into battlefield and highlighted that candles, placards, painted faces, flags, nationalistic slogans, doodled curse words, drawings, tear gas, smoke, and barricades, etc. semiotically represented the protest as a socially engaged artistic expression of anger and condemnation. Breen et al. (2017) studied 4516 items of media broadcast including news, articles, and headlines, etc. to examine the representation of Lazarus rape case in Australia, and noted that use of various lexical features, structuring devices, and quoting strategies served to divert attention from the suffering of the female victim to that of the accused. Chambers et al. (2018) noted that in famous magazines, the sexual identities of immigrant Asian, Muslim, and Pakistani men have been associated, in certain articles, with rape, abuse, and exploitation, while women have been represented as sexually repressed. Mendes et al. (2019) did a critical discourse analysis of the personal accounts of the experiences of sexual violence, dynamics of victim blaming, and absence of details while recounting those experiences on Twitter and Tumbler by the victims. The present study, however, is a socio-semiotic analysis of digital illustration on rape cases in Pakistan and digital illustrations on rape have not been studied from this perspective earlier.

The following research questions have been explored:

The study fills gap in the existing literature because it takes into account the visual discourse in the form of digital illustrations on rape, marital rape, revenge rape, and child sexual abuse to get a holistic overview of the identity construction of rape victims and perpetrators in Pakistan and pinpoints possible semiotic signifiers and representations in the future. It establishes that representation of victims and perpetrators is somewhat discrepant because victims have been shown as experiencing depression and shame, but perpetrators have not been fully made visible in most of the illustrations, which consequently creates a gap between the victim’s visibility and aggressor’s invisibility which may regulate gender myths of victim-blaming due to minimizing the focus on the aggressor. The study also highlights that gender-based victimhood caused by rape is not limited to women but it is experienced by men as well; however, it is not highlighted rigorously through the choice of ideational signs. It too creates a gap between visibility and invisibility from the perspective of gender and victimhood and hides the oppression and victimization of men. As stereotypical and hegemonic discursive representations of offenders and victims, and underrepresentation of context and pre-rape dynamics affect the ways of seeing and behaving (e.g. labeling, shaming or blaming the female victim or solely considering women as the rape victims, thus excluding men) toward the victims and offenders by the community at large, so it is incumbent to understand and represent the crime in its totality.

Therefore, by highlighting the visual grammar of rape in Pakistani context, which has not been highlighted already from this perspective, the study can inspire the illustrators, news reporters, writers, and bloggers to analyze the illustrations critically, broaden the semiotic field of the representation of rape, disclose the identity of the perpetrators, and demonstrate the role of law enforcement agencies and policymakers. The study can also inspire media personnel to make the implicit aggressors – men or women – of not only rape but also other forms of violence explicitly visible. Moreover, as opposed to fixed gender binaries which are mostly limited to female victimhood and male perpetration, the study emphasizes the need for more inclusive and fluid conceptualizations of gender-based violence through discussing female perpetration, male victimhood, and the politics of visibility and invisibility in the discursive representations. Debates must extend to binaries such as state and men, women and toxic women, male victims and male perpetrators, femininity and toxic femininity, and victims and survivors, etc., because rape is not merely an issue of female victimhood. More authentic and diverse representations may also help avoid the static discursive figuration of men and women belonging to certain cultures, such as Pakistan as highlighted in the existing research (Chambers et al., 2018; Riaz, 2019; Riaz and Rafi, 2019), to the rest of the world.

Methods and materials

For data collection, the following was done:

To analyze the illustrations, the social semiotic approach of the grammar of visual design, based on ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions, as elaborated by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) has been applied. According to Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), ‘ideational metafunction deals with “what is” in an image, and is realized through the setting, background, foreground, processes, relations between interactive participants in the image and symbolic value of various lines, shapes, curves with reference to a particular culture or issue which the image represents’ (Riaz, 2019: 5).

So far as relational processes between participants in an image are concerned, these can be transactional, locative, or instrumental. Transactional relations are realized through vectors formed through glances, outstretched arms, or guns, etc. Locative relations are realized through overlapping, gradients of focus, degrees of color saturation, ‘which create the contrast between foreground and background’, while instrumental relations are ‘realized by the gesture of holding where the object held is a tool’ (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006: 46). For images, processes are classified into two main categories: narrative and conceptual (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006). ‘A narrative process can be actional, which creates Actors (the people who do the actions) and Goals (the people to whom the action is done), or reactional, which creates Reacters (the people who see) and Phenomena (the things that are seen). A conceptual Process has a Carrier and Attributes and can be analytical (a whole and its parts), classificational (symmetrically laid out parts), or symbolic (a culturally or socially symbolic Attribute with which the Carrier is conferred)’ (McMurtrie and Murphy, 2016: 450–451). Narrative processes are vectorial, while conceptual processes are non-vectorial. Vectors are formed by the visible or oblique straight lines and connote action. Context makes clear what kind of action the vector represents (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006: 60).

The present study takes into account various dimensions only of ideational metafunction to study the representation of victims, perpetrators, and context. Ideational metafunction combined with an interpretive analysis of the cultural nuances by pinpointing anaphoric and exophoric references to the cultural signified could significantly help pinpoint and interpret the thematic implications of the ideational signs related to men, women, rape, and Pakistani context. Kress and van Leeuwen (2006: 4–8) point out that ‘visual language is culture-specific’, and a sign is a ‘motivated sign’ which can be interpreted according to a specific cultural context. As the study focuses on the semiotic field of rape and the politics of representation or invisibility of the rapist and victim, therefore, delimiting the analysis to the ideational metafunction, which deals with ‘what is’ in the form of signs and their relational processes, background and foreground, and actors and recipients in an image, could be helpful. In response to the first research question, Table 1, which displays the ideational choices of the visual grammar of digital illustrations, is given. The discussion made in relation to Table 1, in response to the second research question, highlights the semiotic and social significance of the ideational choices for rape myths in the Pakistani context, and the gravity of these choices for Pakistani men, women, and culture.

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Table 1.

Ideational signs used in digital illustrations on rape in Pakistan.

Ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions	Signs used in the illustrations on rape in Pakistan
Setting	Locative circumstance is both indoor and outdoor. Both daylight, and dark rooms can be observed. Setting shows rooms, roads, empty spaces, hotel, park, walls and windows etc.
Background	Plain or saturated (Figures A5, A9, A13, A14, A19, A21, A26, A29, A32(a)) gray, black, pink, red, mustard, white, green blue background Walls and doors, Red fabric (Figure A20)
Color schemes	Women and minors sketched in black; black, red and white hands of offenders; multiple-colored backgrounds; pink, black, white and yellow dresses. Red, black, mustard and gray have been predominant choices.
Relational processes	Relational processes are both narrative and conceptual, vectorial and non-vectorial. So far as the narrative processes are concerned, processes are transactional because vectors have not only been formed by the hands, fingers, money and knives of the perpetrators (Figures A1, A14, A26) but also hands (Figures A9, A12, A13, A20), ropes of swings (Figures A11, A30, A32(a)) and eye gaze of the victims (Figures A8, A16, A32(b) and (c)). Processes are also reactional transactional, and participants are interactors (Figures A5, A6, A23, A32(c)). In case of perpetrators as Actors, vectors connote an attempt to grab, stab or offer but in case of victims, they show helplessness, fear, guilt, innocence, escape, and loss. Processes in the remaining images are conceptual analytical and symbolic attributive because Actors are Carriers who possess various culturally or contextually significant attributes which are mentioned in the following in Table 1.
Possessive attributes related to disposition: facial expressions/body language of the victims (action)	Face hidden behind hands, a thorny branch with five flowers placed on a woman’s cheek and neck, hands on face (Figures A1, A3, A16, A19, A29), stooped head and closed eyes, closed body language of a woman who has her arms crossed on her chest (Figure A5), tears and shocked face, hand placed on a window, a girl shouting with her hands thrusting a window pane (Figures A12, A20, A22), hand of a kid resisting a move, stooped head of a girl (Figure A14), stooped head with hand on her neck (Figure A15), hands denoting nikah (wedlock) ceremony, hands gripping white cloth, black figures (Figure A15), a girl sitting arm crossed (Figure A18), a minor girl with her hands up, a girl sitting against a wall with her hands placed on her face (Figure A21), a women facing three men, girl pictogram wrapped in a bubble wrap, a girl sitting on the floor and facing a larger black hand (Figure A26), a boy sketched in black and surrounded by stars, planets, and birds (Figure A27), swing, a black figure of a boy with news written all over it (Figure A31), kids flying kites, riding bicycle, playing football, and swinging, a crumpled paper shaped as a boy’s face (Figure A32(a)), a man escorting a minor boy, three boys running away from a man carrying wallet full of money (Figure A32(c)), a boy having a kid in his lap is sitting on a doorstep (Figure A32(d)), birds flying (Figures A11, A27, A32(a)), layers and ruptures denoting identity issues (Figures A2, A24, A31, A32(a))
Possessive attributes related to disposition: facial expressions/body language of the rapists (action)	Fourteen black hands of different sizes (Figures A1, A5, A6, A18, A26), two red hands (Figure A18), mustard colored fingers stuck in waves (Figure A28), dagger (Figure A1), crow carrying a flower in his beak (Figure A2), girl’s hair shaped as a snake (Figure A7), black snake and red clouds placed in a girl’s head (Figure A7), red colored man (Figure A14), cuffed hands, people stuck in clenched fists (Figure A17), Eight black colored men (Figures A21, A23, A32(d)), a man holding a kid’s hand (Figure A32(b)), a white hand carrying a wallet full of money (Figure A32(b)), shadows of men (Figures A23, A29, A32(d)), vultures flying (Figure A32(c) (not visible in the collage)), two or three men obstructing a girl’s way or standing opposite to her (Figures A21, A23)
Appearance as a possessive attribute	Girls’ loose hair (Figures A1–A8, A14, A15 (not visible in the collage), A16, A18–A24, A26, A29), torn clothes (Figures A3, A29), white cloth tied on a girl’s mouth, black color of boys and girls, a man wearing turban (Figure A32(b)), white, gray, yellow, black dresses of girls, leafless branches (Figures A2, A7, A27), henna tattoos and bangles, naked arms of girls (Figures A1, A3, A5, A6, A15, A18, A22, A29), blurred figures
Ideational signs related to rape	Dagger, knife, blood, streaks and spots of blood, black dots scattered all over the floor (Figure A26), confused lines (Figure A26), locked doors (Figure A23), Hotel written in red on a boy’s face
Ideational signs related to innocence, freedom, media, and law	Placards on women rights (Figure A3), birds (Figures A11, A27, A30, A32(a)), toys (Figures A11, A30, A32(a)), scrap of newspaper (Figure A31), cuffed hands (Figure A17)

Findings and discussion

Table 1 displays examples of signs from the data, and illustrates red, white, and black as dominant color choices, diverse forms of background, indoor and outdoor setting, and cultural signs and symbols of henna, bangles, and turban, etc. Grammatics of ideational signs concerning women show them as victims. Their victimhood has been highlighted through ideational choices in the form of possessive attributes such as loose hair, facial expressions, and torn clothes, etc., as well as action in the form of body language. Minors have also been shown as victims. Men have been depicted as offenders through choices such as black hands, knives, and turbans, etc. Processes are mostly narrative, transactional, and symbolic attributive. Rape has been represented through visual choices such as streaks of blood, crisscross lines, and black dots or stones, etc. which have cultural signified including pain and murder, loss of identity, and victim-shaming, etc.

Based on the ideational signs given in Table 1, it can be stated that the illustrations represent diverse emotional experiences including pain, trauma, agony, identity crisis, fear, isolation, loss, regret and suffering of the rape victims as a major theme. Memory, innocence, shock, murder, shame, helplessness, and lack of support, trust, or willingness are also prevalent themes. Bhuptani et al., (2018: 1227) state that, ‘25%–75% of sexual assault victims’ who disclose the occurrence receive ‘non-supportive reactions from at least one person’ which leads to stigma and heightened sense of shame experienced by the victim because victim is blamed for the assault. ‘Shame is more pronounced for victims of sexual assault compared with victims of other types of trauma’ (Bhuptani et al., 2018: 1227). Besides, adult female victims also display a positive correlation between disclosure of assault and depressive disorders, perception of flawed self, avoidance behavior, and withdrawal (Bhuptani et al., 2018: 1227–1229). Yousafzai (2018) also supports that in cases of child abuse, children who have been abused physically or sexually demonstrate various behavioral changes including crying, bad temper, withdrawal, nightmares, and changes in appetite, academic performance, and sleep patterns. Child abuse often becomes more damaging than physical abuse in the long run. Pinciotti and Orcutt (2017) also add that victim-blaming leads to PTSD, trauma, and self-blame. Hence, inculcating hope in traumatized individuals not only through counseling but also discursive representations may relieve them of suffering.

Another theme that has emerged from the ideational signs related to possessive attributes of women (Table 1) is the stereotype concerning the female appearance, connoted by not wearing dupatta (a long scarf) or chaadar (shawl), or wearing half-sleeves and its association to the possibility of rape. Not wearing dupatta may also connote helplessness, disrespect, and loss of honor in this context (Riaz & Rafi, 2019) because dupatta symbolizes chastity, respect, and protection in Pakistani context. Even within patriarchal societies, however, dupatta/abaya (veil) may connote different things for different women because though colonial and feminist discourses construct veil as an oppressive tool, yet it represents religious conviction, liberation, agency, self-discipline, and privacy as well (Abid, 2015; Hasan, 2018; Kassam and Mustafa, 2018). Cervelli (2018) asserts regarding the ‘dressing semiotics (barefoot and poorly dressed)’ that its deconstruction leads one to conclude that the woman is suffering from ‘moral abandonment’ (p. 186). In the present study, such representation points to the rape myths about victim-blaming, honor norms, and dressing choices of women. Seeing such portrayals of female appearance regulates the myth that women are raped because they make certain dressing choices. No woman wearing burqa (veil) or hijab (veil), as has also been done in the case of digital illustrations on honor killing in Pakistan studied by Riaz (2019), has been illustrated, even though those women also suffer extreme forms of violence.

Another theme that has emerged from the signs and processes displayed in Table 1 concerns safety, and law and order. Visual resources depict that despite protests and placards about human rights, women and children are not safe. Only the victim looking scared in the illustrations implicitly unveils the state of law and order in the country. Textual and visual representations of law enforcement agencies and the role of police and courts must, therefore, be made to create awareness and challenge the existing patterns of abuse. Silencing of the victim (Figure A8) and forceful reaction by the victim (Figure A10) have been semiotically represented, however, more about silencing, harassment, murder, suicide as well as agency of the victim may be illustrated to develop an indirect counternarrative against the rape myths.

Besides, rapists’ clear identity is missing. The representation of rapists has been pictorially framed (Abdel-Raheem, 2017) in the sense that in most of the cases only a hand, which connotes crime in general, represents the rapists (see Ideational Signs Related to Rapists in Table 1), but it is insufficient because it neither reveals the gender, especially the identity of the culprits, nor shifts focus to them due to their implicit visibility in the visual discourse. It is not clear if the rapist is a relative, friend, suiter, spouse, neighbor, driver, colleague, servant, teacher, religious scholar, judge, policeman, or doctor. According to McMurtrie and Murphy (2016: 446), ‘most rapes occur within the context of relationships, particularly intimate relationships’ but these are considered a display of passion than aggression and disrespect.

The findings of the present study are different from those of Breen et al. (2017: 247) who noted that perpetrators have been represented more in the headlines and news reports as compared to victims or the impact of rape on the victims. Moreover, politics of body and masculinity can be observed because neither diverse symbolic means of asserting masculinity (Mubarki, 2018) have been adopted nor hegemonic representations of masculinity involving signs such as muscles, mustaches, guns, or powerful animals (Riaz and Rafi, 2019) have been made; however, signs such as turban, dagger, and large size of the offender as compared to that of the victim display hegemonic imbalance of power, where more power, freedom, and honor is associated to masculinity. Turban, as an ideational sign represents male honor and superiority in Pakistani context (Riaz and Rafi, 2019).

In addition, sometimes, female friends or relatives play a role in manipulating the victim into a rape situation by becoming an ally of the rapist, thus indirectly participating in the crime, but the semiotic representation of such mediators, male or female, is also missing; however, black snakes (Figure A7) may represent relatives or a snake in one’s sleeve but given their placement, they may also represent stigma, painful past, or memories.

Role of health care department, psychologists, survivors, sex-workers, eunuchs, women belonging to all strata, ideas of virginity, varied impact on the victims, and victims’ agency need to be represented to expand the semiotic field of the representation of rape. In addition, the victim’s and perpetrator’s relationship status, their socioeconomic status, the sexual suggestiveness of the victim’s pre-rape behavior, pre-rape dynamics and maneuvers (Hockett et al., 2015: 146) can also be represented. Besides, in honor-based contexts, ‘no’ is not considered as an answer, but an insult and a trigger or so-called justification to commit violence. Honor, saying no, revenge, and relations of domination need to be explored and discursively represented. Consent, another major and complex issue in the context of rape needs to be highlighted. Vishwanath (2018) noted that most rape cases were actually cases of runaway marriages where women were a consenting party.

Various forms of rape identified by Mgolozeli and Duma (2019: 1), such as ‘acquaintance rape, including familial rape; stranger rape; gang rape, including corrective-gang rape, drug-facilitated gang rape, pack-hunting rape, women retributive rape (or women vengeance) for violence experienced from men; homophobic rape; prison rape, including transactional rape and gang initiation rape; and armed rape’ can also be represented. In the Pakistani context, revenge rape in the wake of karo-kari (honor killing) may also be represented. Besides, in child abuse cases, kids are sold and smuggled as well. The rape of street kids is another issue. Children also work as sex-workers (Figure A32(b)) due to financial crisis. Moreover, rape caused by ‘launda system’ or ‘bachabazi’ (gay adoption/child enslavement/trafficking for sexual purposes) in certain areas of Pakistan should be highlighted.

The locative circumstance is quite diverse because it shows both indoor and outdoor settings (see Setting in Table 1), however, it can further be elaborated because lack of social and physical context (Breen et al., 2017: 252) vaguely represents the identities of the victims and rapists. Usman (2018: 4), notes, occurrences of violence against women are ‘higher in interior areas’ of all four provinces of Pakistan, ‘more extreme in rural areas as compared to urban areas’, and more prevalent as ‘we move downwards on the socio-economic class scale’. McMurtrie and Murphy (2016: 460), note in the Australian context, ‘in the context of rape prevention, the bed is a contentious site. When rape is discussed in the media, we are usually told that it is committed in dark public parks by a stranger and not in the privacy of a house or bed by someone known to the victim’; however, in Pakistani context, rapes are committed in the private sphere but news often confirm rape cases committed in fields or on roads as well. No representation of ‘bed’ as a semiotic sign, as discussed by McMurtrie and Murphy (2016) has been made in the illustrations, whereas, a deeper understanding and representation of public/private and rural/urban spheres is crucial to particularly address gang rape, marital rape, and child abuse. once a woman leaves the safety of the four walls of her house (‘chaadar and chardewari’), she deserves to be raped, as illustrated in the recent motorway gang rape scandal, but equally important to realize that women and kids may not be safe in the safer spaces that is, homes, offices, schools, or madrasas.

Women and minors have been semiotically represented as victims (Table 1). This finding supports what Lindgren and Lundström (2010) also pinpointed that a victim is likely to be a woman, sick, or too young or old. Yousafzai (2018) also confirms that girls are predominant victims of rape but Durrani (2017) and Masood (2019), pointing out a major linguistic flaw in the Pakistani criminal code, argue that men are also victims of rape in Pakistan but the definition of rape under criminal code, section 375, explicitly states that only a man can be a rapist and a woman a victim because penile penetration is an essential ingredient for the offense to be considered rape. It not only exempts women from having committed such offense but also makes it complicated for men to raise their voice as victims. Male rape cases also occur but due to stigma, stereotypes of male honor and superiority, and lack of legal protection, men experience shame and prejudice in coming forward as victims in Pakistan. Walfield (2018) also supports that men can also be victims and adverse belief systems concerning male victimization set the foundation for the opposite gender-based rape myths. Shah (2020) also posits that men are positioned as superior and impenetrable, therefore, speaking against male rape is a taboo in Pakistan. Notions of masculinity and power associated with it have led to the perception of men only as perpetrators rather than victims of sexual assault; and it has negative repercussions for the safety and justice for men. ‘According to Sahil, a non-governmental organization, the cases of sodomy and male sexual assault have increased from 39 in 2017 to 45 in 2018. Since men in Pakistan are less likely to report such crimes or speak out about them, it is estimated that the number is much higher than what may be on record’ (Shah, 2020: 1). Overall, there is a ‘need’ for representations of offenders, victims, and context, that ‘challenge hegemonic patterns of understanding social reality, identities and relations’ (Lindgren and Lundström, 2010: 321).

Findings resonate with those of Breen et al., (2017: 249) who also found that sensational and pornographic details have not been represented in news reports. Hair (Figures A1–A3, A7) represents sexuality but loose hair in the rape context may also connote helplessness and lack of protection. Predominant choices of red and black connote crime in case of rapists and loss, shame, and gloom in case of victims; while white and pink connote virginity, respect, and innocence in this context. Considering ‘biomorphic abstractionalism’ (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006: 55), circles (Figures A26–A28) represent traditionally accepted male power which is hindering the natural growth of innocent children; while straight lines and square or rectangular shapes of placards, handcuffs, and knife show the role people can play because straight lines or square shapes ideationally represent rule of law and man-made system (Riaz, 2019).

Conclusion

The study examines two under-studied dimensions of rape: (a) the visual grammar of the construction of rape myths in relation to gender in the digital illustrations, and (b) how the grammar of the visual design of digital illustrations on rape lead to myth making in Pakistani media. It points out that the digital illustrations on rape in Pakistan visually represent the trauma, shame and suffering caused to the victims, as well as, their innocence, helplessness, and vulnerability, however, neither represent the identity and socioeconomic status of the rapists, or adult male victims of rape, nor female agency, thus perpetuate existing gender-based myths regarding victimhood and perpetration. Shame and fear experienced by victims, who are either women or children and silencing of the victims or their relatives through threat or murder show the negative attitudes toward rape victims and reinforce the social norms of honor and male-dominant social hierarchy. Semiotic diversity and depth are required in the multimodal representation of various aspects of the crime, context, identities, and circumstances of the victims and perpetrators.

Keeping in view the seriousness and frequency of rape, clear gender-based identity construction of the rapist and perpetrator is essential so that the real culprit may take responsibility due to heightened visibility. Policymakers, media, parents, and teachers must play a vital role in changing mindsets regarding rape myths concerning blaming the victim and gender-based victimhood so that more social and psychological harm may be avoided.

In this regard, the present study also establishes that creating more nuanced semiotic visual narratives can help the creators of images, policy makers, and parents change the culture by challenging the rape myths through discourse. We live in a digital, visual, world. Changing visual culture would be part of changing culture itself. If women are always represented as helpless and hopeless victims, they will stop believing in their dignity by believing in the myth that they are helpless. Discursive representations, therefore, should give them options to feel and choose beyond helplessness. Therefore, constructive representations of rape survivors can, for instance, be made. If women who facilitate rape are not represented, only men will always be considered as perpetrators. Similarly, if male rape victims are not highlighted, men will only be considered as rapists. If the role of state or law enforcement agencies is not highlighted, rape will always be considered as an issue of gender-based violence. Static representations based on stereotypical gender ideologies and rape myths lead to multilayered marginalization and inequalities experienced by some due to their heightened visibility and others due to their invisibility. The study, therefore, urges to utilize the soft power of art by not only making diverse and authentic socio-semiotic representations, and reframing the oppressive ideology, but also using art to educate about new masculinities and femininities, and dissociate violence from masculinity.