Our femicide problem

The details of the atrocities victims and survivors faced are bone-chilling

Zahir Jaffer, Umar Khalid Memon, M Raza Ali, Saqlain. Partner, husbands, and brother turned into rapists, torturers and murderers, with histories of grave violence and evidence to suggest premeditated murders. Add to that the case of Usman Mirza and accomplices; and also of Shah Hussain who is released after serving only part of his five-year sentence in exchange for stabbing Khadija Siddiqui 23 times. The details of the atrocities these victims and survivors faced are bone-chilling. In the case of Noor Mukadam, Jaffer’s victim, one cannot fathom what would drive a person to such a brutal action – killing with a sharp-edge weapon and beheading.

But unfortunately, taking a closer look at our society would suggest how certain people, the majority of whom are men, are enabled to carry out these gender-based crimes. In Pakistan, men are not held accountable for their actions — harassment is brushed off under the guise of ‘boys will be boys’; acid attacks are labelled crimes of passion by jilted lovers; domestic abuse and honour killings are termed personal matters. These cases are just the stories that made the news, amongst countless others. Women from lesser privileged backgrounds are just quoted as daily nameless statistics. But such a news week or month is expected from a male-dominated society where victim-blaming is a common reaction to crimes against women — giving every other harasser and potential rapist the green signal to indulge in their sick and lustful minds.

Such news stories are, unfortunately, also expected in a country where any parliamentary bill that aims to grant protection to women, minors and vulnerable people from abuse is instantaneously opposed and referred to the Council of Islamic Ideology. One wonders what was anti-Islamic in The Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2021, as the religion is based on tenets of standing up against oppression and practising kindness, especially towards one’s womenfolk. One thing is certain though, had we recognised our country’s rampant problem of femicide, enacted laws and handed out exemplary punishments to perpetrators, provided safe spaces to report and seek shelter in cases of abuse, and as a society, opened up the conversation on abuse and provided survivors with safe spaces, perhaps Qurutulain, Bushra, Noor and countless other women would have survived.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2021.

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