Murder of Pakistani Woman Triggers Renewed Attention to Violence Against Women

The beheading of an ambassador's daughter promises to test the Pakistani legal system, who many say has repeatedly failed victims of violence and needs urgent reform.

27-year-old Noor Mukadam died after being allegedly tortured and killed by an acquaintance -- Zahir Jaffer, the 30-year-old son of an influential family and a dual Pakistan-U.S . national.  Mukadam's death may have been lost in Pakistan's crime statistics, if not for her status and Jaffer's family connections, as well as the affluent location of the killing in block F7, one of Islamabad's most exclusive neighborhoods.

In the days after her death, Pakistanis demanded #JusticeforNoor on Twitter, and a GoFundMe page to raise money for her family's legal fees hit almost $50,000 before her family requested it be closed.  The message suggested the family faces a long legal battle, despite claims of "strong circumstantial and forensic evidence" of Jaffer's guilt by their chief legal counsel, Shah Khawar.

 

Jaffer was arrested at the scene of the alleged attack and later charged with premeditated murder. His lawyer, Ansar Nawaz Mirza, said he hadn't spoken to Jaffer since the alleged attack but said his client "deserves a fair trial." 

Activists are using this case to renew calls for the country's Parliament to pass a law criminalizing domestic violence.  After being held up in the Senate, the upper house of Parliament, the bill was sent for review to the all-male member Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), the constitutional body that advises the legislature on whether or not a certain law is repugnant to Islam. 

 

The council has a poor record on domestic violence -- in 2016, it proposed its own bill to allow men to "lightly beat" their wives.  Women's rights activists fear the conservative council will use its influence on the legislation to kill the bill, sending a message that violence against women in their own homes is allowed, or even condoned.

 

According to the police report he filed on the night of her death, the victim's father he and his wife returned to the family home after running errands to find their daugher had not returned to the house.

They tried to phone her, but her mobile phone was switched off, so they began searching for her with the assistance of her friends.  Later that night, the victim called her parents saying that she would be traveling with friends to Lahore (Pakistan's second largest city) and they shouldn't worry. They didn't hear from her again.

 

The next afternoon, the Mukadams received an unexpected phone call from Zahir Jaffer stating that Noor was not with him. Hours later, police phoned Mukadam to tell him his daughter had been killed, and he should report to the police station. He was then taken to the Jaffer family residence to identify his daughter's body.

 

Police have not speculated on a motive for the alleged murder.  Jaffer and Mukadam, and their families, were known to each other. Police are not commenting publicly beyond the police report.  Jaffer's parents, Asmat Adamjee Jaffer and Zakir Jaffer, the director of Ahmed Jaffer & Company Ltd, one of the oldest family-run trading and project management companies in the country, were also arrested on charges of concealing evidence and abetting a crime.

 

Mukadam's death has drawn attention to the plight of women and girls in Pakistan, where violence against them is considered a "serious problem," according to a 2020 country report from Human Rights Watch. Around 28% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have experienced physical violence since the age of 15, Pakistan's Ministry of Human Rights said, citing the country's Demographic and Health Survey from 2017-2018.  Often, violence occurs within marriage and goes unreported, because it is considered a cultural norm in Pakistan's patriarchal society, according to a World Health Organization review of literature on domestic violence in Pakistan from 2008 to 2018. 

 

It took Pakistani Prime Minister Khan 12 days to comment on Noor's killing, a delay some are interpreting as a sign that he is bowing to more conservative elements of his party -- and the country.  The proposed national bill has become a lightning rod for feminists who claim its delay is a classic example of how legislation regarding violence against women is treated in the country.  Many see Prime Minister Khan's referral of the matter to the Islamic Council as a sign that he lacks the political will to bring about change, since it is not common for bills to be referred to the body.

 

In the days after Mukadam's killing, her hometown gathered to protest and hold a vigil in her memory. A sea of white candles was lit, surrounded by portraits of her smiling face and bouquets of roses.  Since then, there have been protests in cities across the world, including Dublin, Los Angeles, New York, London and Toronto, in the memory of Noor and against femicide in Pakistan.  The crime dominated conversation on Soul Sisters Pakistan, a closed Facebook group with almost 300,000 members that provides a safe digital space for Pakistani women. 

 

Many hope Mukadam's death will lead to change -- and create enough impetus for stronger laws to protect women against violence. Shaukhat Mukadam said his family wants justice.  "It's not just the murder of my daughter. We have to have justice because (there are) implications ... for all Pakistani people's daughters."