A succession of killings, assaults and sexual violence has exposed the dangers women face across Pakistan – and the failures of institutions meant to protect them.

Content warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of violence, sexual assault and murder.

Another day, another heinous crime against women, another nightmare for Pakistani women. On the morning of 20 August 2026, 45-year-old Hina Javed was found dead inside her residence in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, with signs of torture. Her husband, Dr Faisal Asghar Imam, a university medical professor, and a domestic employee were arrested in connection with the domestic abuse case.

Pakistan is currently facing an alarming rise in sexual violence against women, and the most alarming fact to focus on is that both educated and uneducated Pakistani men commit rape, sexual assault, torture and killings against women. The fact that such violence exists across all levels of society is deeply alarming.

With the recent rise in crimes, it is clearly visible how Pakistani women’s lives are increasingly under siege. In Quetta, Dr Mahnoor Nasir was attacked with acid inside Sandeman Provincial Hospital after rejecting a man’s advances, leaving her with severe burns and symbolising the lack of safety of professional women even in workplaces which are meant to be safe.

In Lahore, an 18-year-old domestic worker was raped repeatedly by her employer’s son and driver; she later died following a forced abortion, a tragedy that highlights the exploitation of poor women and the impunity enjoyed by the wealthy perpetrators.

In Karachi’s Orangi Town, a 64-year-old man brutally killed his wife with an iron rod after she refused marital relations, exposing the deep-rooted patriarchal mindset to control women’s bodies within domestic spaces. And the worst part is that some men are justifying this killing by saying that a wife must obey her husband.

Another heinous crime took place in Jhang, when an 18-year-old college student was abducted, gang-raped, and later died in hospital, her case sparking outrage but also fear among families who now hesitate to send their daughters to study.

But these heinous crimes are not new.

One barbaric crime which shocked the entire Pakistani nation, especially women, was the Lahore motorway gang-rape. On 9 September 2020, a woman along with her two children was raped at gunpoint in Lahore’s Gujjarpura. She, along with her children, was waiting for motorway help after her car ran out of fuel. The rapists first took her jewellery and money, then raped her in front of her children.

The question arises: where were the security cameras or surveillance of the citizens travelling via the motorway? And above all, why didn’t help reach even when the woman had already called the helpline number?

That crime shook the very core of every single woman of the country, and most even avoided travelling for several months due to the fear and psychological trauma.

But the most shocking yet absurd part was the victim-blaming by the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) of Lahore, Umer Sheikh, who said: “Choosing the route she took and not checking her petrol tank.” Later, the people shamed the CCPO over his ignorance and misogyny on Twitter.

A country full of toxic masculinity witnessed another of the most brutal murders of a woman, and this time the crime took place in the country’s capital, Islamabad.

This time a beheaded and tortured body of a 27-year-old woman named Noor Mukadam, the daughter of Pakistan’s former ambassador to South Korea and Kazakhstan, was found on 20 July at Islamabad’s upscale sector F-7/4. The police arrested a suspect and murderer named Zahir Zamir Jaffer, who is the son of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest business tycoons. Jaffer is also a dual Pakistan-US citizen and was previously deported from Britain over allegations of sexual harassment and rape.

The killing of Noor Mukadam highlights the darkness of misogyny and violence in the urban elite, as both the victim and the murderer are from the capital’s richest and most highly educated families, which is why the case got the international media’s attention.

Killings, rape and sexual assault are already making the lives of Pakistan’s women miserable like never before, and sexual harassment is another threat to women’s safety on a daily basis. The social media outrage against the viral video of a couple being stripped naked, beaten and subjected to vulgar acts caused the arrest of an accused harasser named Usman Mirza. According to the First Information Report (FIR), the crime took place at an apartment building in sector E-11/2, Islamabad. The incident clearly indicated toxic misogyny and sexual violence, and even demonstrated that a woman is not safe enough to travel in the country.

If you ask Pakistan’s women about their opinion regarding the country’s law and security measures for women’s protection, the majority would express their deep disappointment and pessimism. The law of the country favours the rich and criminals in a way that justice for the victim is a mere fiction.

We all remember Khadija Siddiqui’s fight for justice against Shah Hussain, who stabbed her 23 times in daylight on the street of Lahore. All hopes and fantasies of justice fell down when the Lahore High Court issued his “early release” due to his more civilised behaviour as a good conduct of criminal’s decency. Human rights activists and civil society expressed their anger over the barbaric favourable relaxation in his sentence. But I would say, it wasn’t even surprising – after all, Pakistan is the same country where Mukhtara Mai, a 2002 gang-rape survivor, struggled for years to seek justice, but the poor justice system failed her too. Because of the weak and poor system of justice, men have no fear of the law, as they know that they can do anything to women without being held accountable for their horrendous crimes.

A country where sexual crimes against women are at their peak has no mechanism to ensure the protection and well-being of its women. There are no helplines or functional monitoring systems which operate with practical emergency responsiveness that could have saved thousands of lives of women who were beaten to death inside and outside their houses. Due to the traumatised, fearful and deadly living conditions of women in the country, Pakistan ranked last in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report.

Misogyny, toxic masculinity, sexism and victim-blaming are part of the culture, society and every household of Pakistan, where being a man means “privilege” and “authority”. A society defines a woman by her obedience and submissive nature, whereas being vocal and opinionated is a crime and punishment can be rape, sexual assault and even killing.

No one challenges the old patterns of misogyny, not even the country’s lawmakers and policymakers, because in Pakistan, the system is for the men, by the men and to the men.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.