Sexual and domestic violence are some of the darkest and most destructive experiences that women and children undergo. The prevalence of such violence takes an enormous toll on both the victims’ lives and society at large because of its behavioral, psychological, and economic consequences.
While many groups, organizations, and government agencies have been established to identify and handle such violence, the overall response to it has been appalling.
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As containment measures were imposed across Pakistan in response to COVID-19 earlier this year, a shadow epidemic of domestic violence against women and children also spread across the nation. These vulnerable members of society found themselves trapped with their abusers, isolated from peer support, and cut off from rescue, medical, and rehabilitation services.
This report does not highlight an expert’s perspective of the prevalence of violent behavior but provides a numeric breakdown to help readers understand the gravity of the dangers that women and children face in Pakistan.
Child Abuse Casts a Shadow the Length of a Lifetime
Offenders are often motivated more by fear, ignorance, or anger rather than by hate, and such emotions lead to the dehumanization of unfamiliar groups, and targeted aggression.
Level 1
According to the NGO called War Against Rape, 39,989 cases of child abuse were reported in Pakistan between 2009 and 2019.
In 2020, there were 119 cases of child sex abuse between January and March. These cases jumped to 576 during April-June, representing a 400% increase.
The Cruel Numbers Report from Sahil revealed that more than 80 percent of child rape and sexual abuse cases were committed in the Punjab (853), followed by Sindh (478), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (91), Islamabad (35), Balochistan (22), and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (10).
Level 2
As many as 1,490 children, at least 8 per day, were sexually abused in 2020, and the victims comprised 785 girls, and 705 boys. In 822 cases, the abusers were identified as the victims’ acquaintances, while 135 reported cases involved abuse by strangers. Overall, 60 percent of the child sex abuse cases in Pakistan were perpetrated by the close relatives of the victims.
Level 3
About 168 children had gone missing from their homes, while 51 cases of child marriage and four cases of vani were reported. Vani is a rural Pakistani practice that involves giving underage girls either in marriage or servitude to an aggrieved family as compensation to end disputes.
Level 4
In 98 of the reported cases, the victims had been between one and five years of age, and 331 of them had been between the ages of six and ten. In 490 cases, the victims had been between eleven and fifteen years of age.
There were 165 such cases in which the victims were aged between sixteen and eighteen years of age. The ages of the victims were not mentioned in 405 cases.
Level 5
Reportedly, 160 children had been abused within their homes, and in 395 cases, children had been abused at the residences of close relatives. In four cases, children had been taken to local havelis, 16 had been abused at workplaces, and 193 had been abused in open areas like fields, forests, and streets. Additionally, 16 children had been abused in madrassas.
Level 6
A total of 37 incidents had been reported in Lahore between January and June in which seven children were abducted, two were reported missing, seven were raped, seven were sodomized, and two were gang-raped. In one case, a child had been murdered after being raped, and in three similar cases, a child had been murdered after being sodomized.
The following is a nationwide breakdown by select categories:
- Abduction: 332
- Rape: 160
- Sodomy: 233
- Gang rape: 69
- Gang sodomy: 104
As per national coverage by 84 news channels throughout the year, 1,340 incidents had been reported to the police between January and June. Seven similar cases were not filed and seven incidents went unregistered. According to news reports, 135 cases had been reported with incomplete information.
X, a Face Too Lovely – Y, A Corpse in the Lake
Violence Against Women (VAW) is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary organization dedicated to the publication of research and information on all aspects of violence against women 16 times a year. But why is it published 16 times a year?
Level 1
In September 2019, Pakistan ranked 6th among the most dangerous countries in the world for women with a rapid rise in the recorded cases of sexual crimes and domestic violence. Ever since then, activists have blamed society’s patriarchal attitudes for the problem.
This perspective is arguably incorrect, and the bigger picture reveals that all of humankind is to be blamed.
Level 2
Local media reports have revealed that more than 51,241 counts of violence had been reported between 2011 and 2017, of which only 2.5 percent had resulted in criminal sentences for the perpetrators.
According to White Ribbon Pakistan, 4,734 cases of sexual violence, 15,000 honor crimes, more than 1,800 cases of domestic violence, and over 5,500 kidnappings had been recorded during 2004 and 2016.
Level 3
During 2020, local news outlets had reported 33 explicit cases of violence against women but the Gujjarpura ‘motorway incident’ takes the cake for being the most high-profile case ever, and had sent shivers across the country.
Level 4
A total of 158 cases had been reported between January and March, from which it is evident that the Punjab is the most affected region, followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Evidently, violence against women increased since March 2020 as nine cases in January (2 percent) increased to 165 (33 percent) in June 2020. The Punjab had the majority of the total cases (77 percent). Additionally, 495 cases of violence against women were reported by September.
Level 5
Reports of harassment and rapes at the workplace harassment also spiked as the Punjab once again took the lead for the highest frequency of reported crimes against women that included 18 cases of workplace harassment of which 16 of which were reported.
Out of 250 cases of rape, 224 had been reported in the Punjab where kidnappings also increased between January and September with 395 reported cases out of 444.
Level 6
According to a report published by the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO), official statistics for violence against women have been underreported. The NGO has determined that instead of the aforementioned 495 counts of violence, there were 3,148 cases of violence against women.
As compared to the above-mentioned 250 counts of rape, the SSDO revealed a total of 1868 cases across Pakistan:
- Punjab: 1,658
- Sindh: 70
- Balochistan: 21
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 119
The report reveals alarming statistics for 6,720 kidnappings during 2020:
- Punjab: 6,448
- Balochistan: 170
- Sindh: 79
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 5
The SSDO has requested the provincial government to share all the relevant information under the Punjab Transparency and Right To Information Act, 2013.
Timeline for All High-Profile Cases in 2020
6 February 2020
A teenage girl was beaten by her father in the presence of a crowd in Nazimabad, Karachi. The father was later arrested and jailed.
18 February 2020
Two women were deprived of their cash and one of them was raped after being abducted in Rawat.
27 February 2020
A man was arrested on Thursday for killing his sister and her newborn son in Alipur tehsil of District Muzaffargarh.
28 February 2020
An anti-harassment ombudsman found two officers of Sindh’s Department of Health guilty of harassing a female colleague.
27 April 2020
The police arrested four suspects for the alleged rape and murder of a 25-year-old woman in the Upper Gizri area of Clifton during a house robbery.
30 April 2020
A woman in Attock was sexually assaulted by her uncle at his house where she had been staying after being beaten and ousted from her husband’s house. She said that she had been assaulted twice.
8 May 2020
A man killed his wife after she had ‘failed to serve a hot meal’ during sehri in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shalkanabad area in Upper Kohistan.
8 May 2020
The Saddar police registered a case on Thursday against a suspected banker for assaulting a female banker after an accident on Shahrah-e-Faisal near the FTC building.
17 May 2020
Two teenage girls were allegedly murdered for ‘honor’ by a family member earlier during this week in a village located on the border of the North and South Waziristan tribal districts after a short mobile video of them with a young man had surfaced on social media.
15 June 2020
The police filed a case against seven persons including three women against charges of the torture, sexual abuse, and illegal confinement of a domestic worker. The victim claimed that she had begun working as a domestic worker at a woman’s house in Abbasia Town and had been residing there for the last two years, and that during her employment period, the house owners had forced her to work as a prostitute and subjected her to physical torture if she disobeyed them.
7 July 2020
The police registered a case against a doctor for allegedly attempting to rape a teenage girl at his private clinic in Ratta Amral, Rawalpindi.
8 July 2020
A journalist working for a private TV channel was arrested for allegedly murdering his wife in Yousuf Colony, Rawalpindi.
17 July 2020
A 16-year-old Italian girl of Pakistani origin was saved from a forced wedding to her underage cousin by the police on the intervention of the Italian Embassy. She claimed that her family had threatened to kill her when she had refused the proposal.
8 August 2020
A Rawalpindi district and sessions judge extended the interim bail of two men accused of the sexual assault, committing “inappropriate acts” with, and indecent filming of a girl.
The First Information Report (FIR) had been lodged with the Waris Khan Police Station’s Station House Officer Ghazanfar Abbas as the complainant. According to the FIR, a video that had been circulated on social media had shown two men sexually stripping and assaulting a girl while the third suspect had captured the act on video camera.
8 August 2020
A man shot and killed his sister for ‘honor’ in Clifton, Karachi. Hasnain Qamar shot his 19-year-old sister, Noorul Huda Shah, in the Marine Drive area in Clifton Block 2.
13 August 2020
A woman suffered burn injuries and was hospitalized after having been allegedly set on fire by her husband in Naseerabad on Wednesday.
Police said the woman, 48, hailing from Kahuta had gotten married 21 years ago. Relations between the couple started had turned sour over the marriage of their eldest daughter as the husband had been against the marriage.
The victim had stated that while her daughter was at her relatives’ house, her husband had come into her room, doused her with petrol, and set her on fire.
20 August 2020
Police in the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) said on Wednesday they had arrested a 22-year-old man who had “forcefully sexually assaulted and then strangled” his 20-year-old fiancée in a neighborhood of the city.
10 September 2020
Two ‘robbers’ allegedly raped a woman at gunpoint in Gujjarpura on Wednesday while she had been waiting for help on the motorway after her car had broken down. The woman had been traveling from Lahore to Gujranwala with her children.
A police official stated that as the woman had crossed the toll plaza on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway before her car had stalled either due to a shortage of petrol or some fault.
Meanwhile, she had received a call from a relative in Gujranwala who had told her to call the police helpline while he left his house to reach her.
The police officer stated that two armed men had found the woman alone and had taken took her and her children to a nearby field at gunpoint before gang-raping her.
21 September 2020
Four armed men allegedly gang-raped a woman in presence of her children and husband, and robbed the family of jewelry and Rs. 20,000 in cash in the village of Ghula in the jurisdiction of the Midh Ranjha Police.
The complaint said that four robbers, one of them who was identified, had scaled the wall of his house in Dera Aslam Haral and had taken him and his family to the roof, and gang-raped his wife.
He alleged that the robbers had stolen their cash and gold ornaments and had raped his wife a second time in the garden before fleeing the scene.
The husband claimed that he had reported the matter to the police but they had insisted on omitting the allegation of the gang-rape from his report.
22 September 2020
The Gujranwala police registered a case against an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the police for raping a 23-year-old woman after a video clip in which she had leveled allegations against him had gone viral on social media.
23 September 2020
A girl was murdered by her relatives for wanting to marry of her free will in the Jawaki Banda area of the Darra Adam Khel tribal subdivision.
23 September 2020
A woman was kidnapped and raped in Clifton, according to a police report. The police said that the woman had been waiting for public transport near the mausoleum of Abdullah Shah Ghazi on Monday night to go home when two men in a Vigo kidnapped her, took her to their apartment in Clifton, and raped her before abandoning her.
27 September 2020
Two teenage girls were shot at their home by unidentified persons in the village of Sobdar Wah near Dadu on Sunday, police said. One of the victims had died on the spot while the other was in critical condition.
1 October 2020
A 17-year-old girl from a Hindu family who had allegedly been raped a year earlier, committed suicide in District Tharparkar, Sindh after she had reportedly been blackmailed by the suspects who had been accused of sexually assaulting her by her family. The teenager had committed suicide by jumping into a deep open well in the village of Dalan-Jo-Tarr near Chelhar Town.
14 October 2020
At least three women and four children were allegedly raped in Kasur, Punjab. According to one complaint, a woman was gang-raped at gunpoint by seven men. An FIR had been was filed at the Sheikhum police station by the victim’s husband who claimed that this had been the second time that the suspects had raped his wife.
6 November 2020
A man murdered his daughter for being noisy at their home. People said the girl had been playing when her father had told her to stop making noise. He then hit his daughter repeatedly with a wooden plank and escaped when she succumbed to her injuries.
12 November 2020
A man was arrested for allegedly raping a woman and her minor daughter for two days. He had duped the woman with a fake offer for a job in District Kashmore of Northern Sindh.
9 December 2020
Suspects involved in the alleged gang-rape of two girls in Larkana have been arrested. In their video statements, the victims accused four persons for sexually assaulting and filming them.
The victims’ family held a demonstration outside Rehmatpur police station, also claiming that one of the daughters was kidnapped at gunpoint on December 6. Investigation against the perpetrators is currently ongoing.
20 December 2020
Police in Mansehra apprehended a constable for sexually assaulting a woman in the Nogazi area. According to an FIR registered against the crime, the constable would blackmail and sexually assault the woman in absence of her husband as he was settled out of the district for work.
The accused used to barge into his house and assaulted his wife in presence of children, and also threatened the entire family of dire consequences if they put up resistance.
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Last Word
Violence is rooted in gender-bias, social norms that accept violence, and gender stereotypes that encourage violent behavior. To date, efforts to eliminate it have mainly focused on providing services for the survivors. However, structural prevention is pivotal to eliminating violence against women and children completely.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), violence against women is highly prevalent, and violence by intimate partners is its most common form.
While Pakistan is working to eradicate domestic violence against women and children, the issue needs to be addressed at the grass-root level. For starters, Pakistanis do not have to understand the psychology behind sexual violence; it is inhumane in every way and it needs to be stopped.
IN MAIN SE KITNE CASE PE COURT NE LATKANE AUR QATAL KA HUKUM DIA
JAB TAK MUJRIM KO QANOON AUR SAZA KA DAR NA HOGA, WO AISE GUNHA KARTA RAHYGA
Reading this makes me feel depressed and sad at our society. We need strict laws and laws should be implemented. It is the government’s fault that they can’t enforce basic laws for the safety of the public.