Honor or horror? The struggle against gender-based violence in Pakistan

Sana met Adnan on an online app, they started chatting and soon decided they were in love and wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. Sana liked Adnan’s attention to detail, how he cared about her well-being immensely, and was very protective of her. So much so that he always knew where she was, who she was with, what time she got back home, etc. They agreed that Sana would keep sending Adnan her live location every hour so that he could prevent any untoward incident from happening to her. He also took her into confidence about all these protocols and told her not to share this with her family because they wouldn’t understand how much he loved her. Soon their respective families met and their engagement was formalized. Adnan hailed from a comfortable background, while Sana belonged to the lower middle class. Adnan also had friends with connections and gradually Sana got to know that going to parties, flaunting arms and occasional use of drugs was a norm for Adnan and his friends. She would try to make him realize the problematic nature of his actions but he would brush her concerns aside saying that she was not aware of this lifestyle, it was harmless and she just belonged to a different class.

Soon after they got married, Sana had to leave her hometown to be with Adnan, things were very rosey in the beginning but soon Adnan’s suspicious nature and paranoia surfaced and he slowly but surely cut her off from all her well-wishers including family and friends. Every time she’d ask him to take her to visit her parents, he would avoid the topic, and if she insisted the heated arguments more often than not turned into a slap or a push that would silence her. Sana started realizing the gravity of her situation and wanted to escape.

Adnan’s sister Huma showed empathy towards Sana’s situation, she would try to knock some sense into her brother but to no avail. When months passed since Sana last met with her parents. Huma somehow convinced her brother to allow his wife to visit her family to which he agreed but with the condition that Huma would accompany Sana to her parents’ house and only return when Sana returned. Huma agreed to the condition keeping Sana’s desperate state in mind. The trio, along with Adnan’s friend embarked on the journey to Sana’s hometown.

On their journey, Sana and Adnan had arguments over the number of days that she could spend at her parent’s home. When they arrived at the destination the argument had already escalated and Adnan felt that his sister Huma was his wife Sana’s accomplice and they both had betrayed his trust to be with other men. While dropping them off, he got very aggressive and in a fit of anger shot both of them causing their death on the spot, while he was fleeing the scene, he threatened his in-laws with impunity and challenged them to get him arrested by the police.

The names and background story of this double murder have been changed however a man did shoot his sister and wife in Lahore and escaped the scene. There has been a sharp rise in violence against women in Pakistan. In the last 13 years, 3400 women were killed in the name of honor in the province of Punjab only.

Punjab Government has launched a Safe City Virtual Women Police Station for the safety of women in which in the last 5 months 124583 complaints have been received from women across the province.

According to the report of the Safe City Virtual Women Police Station,4989 cases of domestic violence, and 563 cases of sexual violence while 132  murders and 15 cases of acid attacks were registered.

An NGO called the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) has released a report, mapping gender-based violence in Pakistan: District Level Analysis of Rape, Kidnapping and Honor Killings. The report is based on data sourced from provincial police departments via Right to Information (RTI) requests, and analyses GBV cases reported in Punjab, Sindh, KP and Balochistan during 2023. Punjab emerged as the epicenter of reported rape cases accounting for a staggering 6624 out of 7010 cases nationwide… 94.5% of the total comparatively Sindh reported 188 rape cases KP 187 and Balochistan 11. This indicates the underreporting of GBV cases in other provinces. The honor killing cases reported in Sindh were 258 followed by KP with 129, Punjab with 120, and Balochistan with 26. Social stigma, fear, and lack of support systems prevent many survivors from coming forward.

SSDO report recommends enhanced police training, focused on victim-centred approaches to ensure sensitive handling and timely prosecution of cases. Community engagement initiatives are crucial to reduce the stigma associated with reporting GBB while legislative oversight and stricter enforcement of existing laws are needed to hold perpetrators accountable. Syed Kausar Abbas, Executive Director of SSDO highlighted the pressing need for a coordinated, multisectoral response to GBV.