Disturbing news out of Pakistan as police report a 1-week-old girl was murdered by her father because he wanted a son.
After the vile crime was committed, the father fled the home and is currently at large in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
Details on the crime are limited, but the incident has been addressed by the National Commission for the Dignity of Women in Pakistan. Commission chairwoman Nilofar Bakhtiar spoke to local media today and confirmed that the girl had been killed because of her sex.
Police have released information to the public on the father, identifying him as Shahzeb, in hopes of locating him, and Bakhtiar has vowed to ensure that the perpetrator is brought to justice.
Crimes against female children are not uncommon in Pakistan, and are considered part of a wider trend on violence against women in the nation which Human Rights Watch has deemed “endemic.”
Earlier this year, a 6-year-old girl was murdered by her father after he became angry with her mother following a divorce. The girl’s mother told police he had killed their daughter “out of spite” after the two had an argument.
According to the Global Database on Violence Against Women, 21% of Pakistani women were married before they turned 18. 14.5% of married women aged 15-49 have experienced sexual or physical violence from an intimate partner in the last 12 months.
In July of 2021, Pakistani women began demonstrating in outrage after the brutal murder of a 27-year-old woman at the hands of a male friend in the capital city of Islamabad.
Noor Makadam was held hostage and tortured for two days after she rejected a marriage proposal from a wealthy Pakistani-American businessman’s son. She was beaten repeatedly using knuckledusters, sexually assaulted, and ultimately beheaded.
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