HYDERABAD: The Women’s Action Forum (WAF) has unveiled a deeply disturbing four-year analysis of gender-based violence in Sindh, exposing a society where patriarchal control, institutional failure, and social apathy have combined to make women increasingly unsafe.
The report, based on media monitoring conducted between 2021 and 2025, goes beyond statistics to highlight the brutal and often unreported reality of violence against women. One of the key revelations of the report, which was presented at a press conference at the Hyderabad Press Club on 03-August-2025, challenges the long-held belief that a woman’s home is her safest space.
The findings reveal that domestic violence is widespread, and the perpetrators are often close relatives — husbands, fathers, brothers, and other family members. For many women, the place that should offer protection and peace has become the site of violence and fear.
The report also documents a disturbing trend: as legal reforms and awareness have gradually empowered women, a violent patriarchal backlash has emerged in response. According to WAF, the more women assert their rights and autonomy, the more aggressively the patriarchal system reacts. This backlash has manifested in increased physical violence, as attempts to reassert control and silence women.
Despite the expectation that state institutions will protect victims of violence, the report highlights the alarming dysfunction and inaccessibility of these systems. Many women who approach police stations or legal bodies for protection or justice are either ignored, mistreated, or subjected to secondary victimization. The state’s failure to provide timely intervention or legal redress has enabled a cycle of repeated abuse.
Equally troubling is the normalization of gender-based violence. According to WAF, societal apathy and institutional inaction have created an environment where such violence is no longer shocking—it is expected. This normalization is visible not only in public attitudes but also in how state and judicial systems often treat such crimes as routine or insignificant. Impunity has become the norm rather than the exception.
The report does not shy away from documenting the horrific extremes of violence. Cases include women who were not only killed but mutilated—faces disfigured, noses cut off, skin peeled, and in some cases, beheadings. Such acts of cruelty are designed not only to punish but to instill fear and reinforce subjugation.
Patriarchy, WAF argues, has moved from ideology to violence both symbolic and physical. While the report includes figures under various categories such as honour killings, murders, suicides, sexual assaults, rape followed by murder, non-lethal domestic violence, and harassment it emphasizes that these are not just numbers.
Each case represents a stolen life and a silenced voice. The true scale of suffering extends far beyond what is recorded. Media monitoring played a key role in gathering this data, yet the report is critical of the broader role of the media
It highlights how sensationalist reporting, victim-blaming, and lack of investigative depth contribute to misinformation and the trivialization of gender violence. Moreover, the media often fails to challenge harmful narratives and instead provides a platform for voices that discredit feminist struggles.
The report also connects the rise in violence to ideological campaigns against women’s rights. Movements like the Aurat March and other feminist protests have been branded as “un-Islamic,” “obscene,” or part of a “Western agenda” by certain religious and political actors. These ideological assaults create a moral justification for violence and portray women’s demands for equality and dignity as threats to societal norms.
In addition, the political landscape has contributed to this climate of misogyny. Sexually demeaning language used against women politicians, particularly those in opposition, is broadcast in mainstream discourse without criticism.
This not only reflects deep-seated gender bias but further reinforces harmful stereotypes and justifies violence in the public imagination. WAF concludes that the problem is not limited to individual acts of violence but points to a broader collapse of moral, legal, and institutional frameworks.
Without a fundamental transformation in the legal system, public discourse, and political ideology, the report warns, future generations of women will face the same oppressive realities. What is needed, WAF argues, is not incremental change but a foundational shift—one that ensures women’s lives are valued, protected, and empowered. The conviction rate in violence against women was only 0.2 percent.
Published in News Daily on 04-August-2025.