Muzaffargarh horror: Pakistani woman being disrobed and paraded in public

EDITORIAL

YET another story of a Pakistani woman being disrobed and paraded in public in retaliation for what was perceived as a slight to someone else’s honour is a reminder about two facts of life here. One, that women are used as pawns and victims in disputes that have nothing to do with them. And second, that political influence and police negligence, often related, enable attackers to carry out these acts of sexual abuse and violence. Tortured, robbed, stripped, paraded and kidnapped, the woman was victimised in order to seek revenge for the actions of her nephew, who carried out a free-will marriage with a girl from a clan not his own.

Some action has been taken in this case; over 20 of the dozens of attackers have been detained, the SHO of the relevant police station has been arrested for negligence and the woman was recovered yesterday. But the fact that the incident took place at all indicates that sections of Pakistani society still think they can get away with public acts of violence in the name of honour. Part of the problem, again not surprising, is that the girl’s family is reportedly an influential one with a political background, and one central figure involved in the kidnapping is apparently a former councillor who has not even been named in the FIR. And while the kidnapped woman has come home, the couple’s lives remain in danger wherever in the country they might hide despite the fact that their marriage was sanctioned in a court of law.

The incident is a reminder that while strides have been made in enacting legislation to protect women’s rights, it will still take years, if not decades, for that mentality to filter down and change actions on the ground. Pakistan now has laws against, among other things, sexual harassment, domestic violence, forced marriage and acid throwing, all of which seek to establish loud and clear that discrimination and violence against women are illegal even if they are sometimes sanctioned by tradition and social attitudes. But this episode makes clear that while laws can be changed, it will take much longer to change these attitudes.