0
WITH the images that are transported directly on to your phone screens, life has become a torment with all that is happening in this rather ugly world of ours. Often what you watch affects you badly and scars your soul.
One such image is that of a woman surrounded by about a dozen men being escorted away from the SUV in which she was presumably brought to the rocky wilderness. A video recording shows her walking a few steps with amazing calm and poise — her back is towards the men — and then she stops.
Next a man raises a pistol, points it towards the back of her chador-draped head and fires several shots. Before collapsing under a hail of bullets, Bano Satakzai appeared to express no fear, no anxiety, no emotion; offered no reaction. Whether it was outright resignation at her fate, defiance or stoicism is difficult to say.
The incident happened several weeks ago in Degari, Balochistan, we are told, and only became public when the men who’d brought her there for a ‘karo kari’ (‘honour’ killing) posted a horrific video of her murder on social media. A man was also said to have been killed at the same spot, but only the woman’s murder was captured clearly on camera. Their crime was initially said to be a marriage of choice, invoking the family and tribe’s wrath.
Pakistan’s ‘vigour’ in prosecuting cases of crimes against women is another story.
But then, the Balochistan chief minister criticised the media and social media users for not doing proper ‘investigative journalism’ as the couple were not married. In fact, a tribal chief or jirga had found them guilty of having an extramarital affair and sentenced them to death. Despite this ‘clarification’, gratefully, Sarfaraz Bugti hastened to add nobody had the right to take their lives and he stood with the victims and would ensure justice was served.
While nobody said who took the man’s life, it was emphasised that the woman was killed by her own brother because she had dishonoured the family. Belatedly, the Balochistan government says it arrested 11 men involved but, given the conviction rate in crimes against women, one can be sure once media attention shifts, the matter could be brushed under the carpet as has happened many times in the past.
The killers made sure that the woman’s execution was recorded and shared later on social media. The man was killed too but the focus on the woman being killed seemed designed to serve as a warning to other women to never ‘step out of line’.
Yes, it all makes sense in the beautiful world we have created, where patriarchy reigns supreme. Crimes against women are by no means restricted only to our society; they are a worldwide phenomenon. However, Pakistan’s ‘vigour’ in prosecuting such cases is another story.
In Pakistan, the conviction rate for those prosecuted for ‘honour’ killings and rape, besides other gender-based cases of violence, stands at 0.5 per cent. Yes, I will repeat: half a per cent, which, in other words, means that 99.5pc of those perpetrating violence against women get away scot-free. Legislation and induction of women police officers to investigate/ prosecute such crimes is yet to show in the statistics. This percentage in this instance is from the over 32,000 recorded, registered cases in 2024. It’s safe to assume many more cases aren’t even reported or registered.
The truth is that even in the West, women are battered, even killed. They are known not to receive protection when their own partner, for example, is the transgressor. Institutional bias is often evidenced in such cases where women under threat are either not believed or are ignored and the authorities don’t do enough to prevent domestic violence, even if they spring into action after violent incidents.
In our case, the vulnerability of women is exacerbated by the utter and complete lack of interest of the law-enforcement machinery in not just stopping violent men, despite being alerted in instances, but also by the fact that after a crime is committed, the investigation and prosecution do not seem to be a priority either.
The result is whether it was Qandeel Baloch murdered by her own brother, who had no qualms living off his sister’s income but felt she dishonoured the family by becoming a bold social media star a few years ago; or the most recent blood-curdling torture and consequent death of a 19-year old woman, whose psychopath husband did unmentionable things to her; or earlier this year the brother who killed his two sisters because they’d married of their own choice — all victims are women.
Each instance is one of control and of repudiation of a woman as an equal, with rights identical to men. The world has moved in varying degrees to acknowledge legally and societally the equality of women, despite resistance from those long conditioned by patriarchy. We seem far behind as we speak.
Each report of gender-based violence or even discrimination pushes me deeper into despair. If half of our society is not prepared to relinquish control over the remaining half and embrace it as a diverse equal, imagine the collective intellectual and decision-making deficit that is created. This system has to be dismantled, torn down before we can build something better, more equal, fairer and saner.
I am reminded of John Lennon’s words: “You may say I am dreamer, but I am not the only one.” I wish I had Lennon’s optimism in saying I am not the only one, and that an equal, fairer society is indeed possible. And that men could be reformed to appreciate that patriarchy is a major impediment to our development and that women’s equality is a matter of right not something that owes to a man’s benevolence.
But every day we furnish evidence we are moving further and further away from being more inclusive. We appear determined to condemn ourselves to torment such as the one that the images from Degari brought us. Where can we realistically go from here?
The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2025
