Western govt support enabling ‘deeply misogynistic culture’ across Pakistan: Report

Washington: Western governments must recognise that their financial and military support for Pakistan is enabling a deeply misogynistic culture in which women and children are subjected to violence and abuse in the South Asian country, a report has stated.

Pakistan requires extensive legal, social, economic, educational and political reforms to address violations of women’s rights. Until meaningful changes are made, foreign women travelling to Pakistan must exercise extreme caution, as they could potentially face blasphemy allegations, physical violence or sexual assault, Turkish journalist Uzay Bulut wrote for American media outlet ‘PJ Media’ recently.

She noted that the targeted killings of social media influencers have intensified in recent years, triggering serious concerns over women’s safety in Pakistan.

On August 14, a 28-year-old content creator, Shamso Bibi, with more than 1.3 million followers, was shot dead by two men in Taxila, near Pakistan's capital Islamabad.

Bibi, also known online as Ayesha Gilamana, was killed allegedly over a financial dispute, her brother Niamatullah said as he appealed to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif to intervene in the case and ensure justice.

Citing Pakistani media reports, Bulut said that two unidentified men on a motorcycle opened fire on Bibi, while she was traveling with her younger siblings, marking the latest case in a wave of gender-based killings in Pakistan.

The killing of Bibi follows a string of cases involving female social media content creators, amid mounting concerns about harassment, violence and the broader risks confronting women in Pakistan.

Highlighting escalating violence against women across Pakistan, Bulut said, “Each year, hundreds of women and girls are killed in Pakistan, often by relatives who say they are protecting the family's honor. Deadly violence and physical abuse against women and girls by their family members are widely underreported and often treated by local authorities as private family matters rather than crimes.”

“These abuses are mainly rooted in Islam. Pakistan adopted an Islamic Constitution in 1973 and Sharia (Islamic) law in its civil code. In line with Sharia's systematic oppression of women, Pakistani women and girls face severe, systemic human rights violations such as domestic abuse, sexual abuse, honor killings, abductions, forced conversions, and harassment, which remain widespread and largely unpunished,” she added.

The report noted that young girls from religious minority communities in Pakistan, particularly Hindus and Christians, continue to be systematically targeted through abductions, forced religious conversions, rape and forced marriages.

Stressing that these are not isolated incidents, PJ Media cited political scientist Gianna Francesca Catolico, who said Pakistan, a state party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), has a long and disturbing record of abuses against women and girls, particularly women human rights defenders (WHRDs).

Catolico said that these abuses range from sexual violence, incest, forced conversions and forced marriages involving girls under 18 to a despicable series of honour killings, some of which have even been carried out by Pakistani diaspora families in developed countries.

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