Dr Summaiya Syed-Tariq, the chief police surgeon in Pakistan's Sindh provincial health department, has spent 26 years documenting violence in Karachi's medico-legal system. She describes the city as a "petri dish" of crime, reflecting many forms of violence experienced by Pakistan's women, often concealed, misreported, or never reported at all.
Recent Cases Highlight Escalating Violence
In early June 2024, a 64-year-old man walked into a police station in Karachi's Orangi neighbourhood and confessed to murdering his wife, Asma Begum, a 58-year-old mother of four, because she had refused him sex. A video circulating on social media shows him calmly stating, "I killed my wife. We have a give-and-take arrangement and when she refused to give, I said I would take."
The next day, a lift operator at Quetta's Civil hospital threw acid on Dr Mahnoor Nasir, a 29-year-old doctor, when she opened her door. The suspect was later killed during police efforts to detain him. Nasir sustained burns to 35% of her body and was airlifted to Karachi for treatment.
On 7 June, an unconscious 17-year-old girl in Jhang, Punjab, was dumped at a hospital by three men. Police arrested suspects using CCTV footage. They said the girl had been kidnapped, drugged, and gang-raped. She later died.
Also in June, an 18-year-old housemaid in Lahore told police she had been repeatedly raped by her employer's son and his driver. She died shortly after from complications related to multiple abortions.
Systemic Hurdles and Underreporting
Dr Syed-Tariq says, "As a society, our tolerance and acceptability towards violence have increased manifold. These cases are just the tip of the iceberg." She notes that families often provide vague information and refuse postmortem examinations, which remains one of the biggest hurdles. "There is such a hue and cry, although it is against the law," she adds. "It's because they don't want us to confirm what we already suspect."
She emphasizes that hidden violence underscores the need for better documentation: "We need to count these women in order to formulate policies to protect them." She is working to set up a femicide observatory, the first in Pakistan and perhaps South Asia, to monitor the premeditated killing of women.
Marital Rape and Societal Attitudes
Marital rape is one of the least-reported forms of violence. Dr Syed-Tariq says, "We only come to know [about such cases] if the woman is brought to the hospital in critical condition." She adds that nobody believes the victim—not doctors, not police, and often not even the courts. "After finding the courage to speak out and crossing so many barriers, if she still receives no help, it is no surprise that such crimes go unreported. By the time the situation reaches a crisis point, it is too late."
One case from last year continues to haunt her. A woman was sexually violated just two days after her marriage. Her brother alleged that the husband inserted a metal pipe and his hand into her anus and threatened to kill her if she spoke. Despite her bleeding, her in-laws concealed her condition and did not seek medical assistance.
Normalization of Aggression
Dr Syed-Tariq observes that many men do not see women as human beings but as objects. "It baffles me no end—even if there is little love, where is the companionship and friendship?" In the Orangi case, the violence inflicted on the wife was "extreme" all because she refused sex.
Disturbingly, social media was flooded with videos of men, including lawyers, praising the husband for killing his wife over her "disobedience," with some legal professionals publicly offering to represent him. Dr Syed-Tariq is not surprised. "I have met mothers-in-law who insist their sons were right to put the fear of God into their wives. They cannot comprehend a wife saying no, and they invoke religion to justify it. The common refrain is that angels would otherwise send their laanat [curse] upon her."
She believes such attitudes are symptoms of a deeper societal malaise. "We must get to the root causes of violence. It is not a leak that you can plug; it is a systems failure." She notes the growing normalization of aggression in everyday interactions, such as boys throwing stones at stray dogs or hitting each other as play, and vandalized park swings.
Survivors from All Backgrounds
Dr Syed-Tariq dispels the myth that violence is confined to certain sections of society. "Just as violence has many shades and forms, the women who experience it come from every social class and background." After decades of listening to survivors, she says their most urgent need may not be medical care or legal aid, but something far more basic: "Simply someone to believe her."
