Islamabad, Pakistan
CNN
—
The alleged gang rape of a girl in a park in Pakistan has enraged girls’s rights activists who’re protesting towards what they see as “growing sexual barbarism” within the nation.
The lady, 24, was with a male colleague within the capital Islamabad’s Fatima Jinnah park – identified domestically as F9 park and the biggest within the metropolis – final Thursday once they have been allegedly attacked by two armed males, in response to a press release she filed with the police, seen by CNN.
The lady alleged the lads compelled the pair towards a “jungle space” of the park the place they ripped off her garments and raped her.
She mentioned the lads advised her she mustn’t have been within the park at evening and requested about her connection to her colleague.
“After I responded, I used to be slapped. My hair was pulled and I used to be thrown on the ground,” the lady mentioned in her police assertion.
The incident has sparked outrage within the nation of 220 million, which is extremely patriarchal and the place violent assaults towards girls and ladies incessantly make headlines.
Scores of protesters have tied their dupattas – scarves worn by South Asian girls – to the railings of the park, alongside messages imploring change.
“Please don’t let one other sister undergo,” one word learn. “Save the ladies and youngsters of Pakistan,” learn one other.
The rights group, Aurat Azadi March (Girls’s Freedom March), mentioned in a press release, “There’s an growing sexual barbarism in Pakistan, and felony silence on it by the state and society is unacceptable.”
“We’re enraged. We’re in ache. And we won’t let this be forgotten.”
A spokesperson for Islamabad police advised CNN no arrests had been made within the case thus far.
Fatima Jinnah park is a sprawling oasis unfold throughout the middle of Islamabad in an prosperous a part of the town, and has a excessive safety presence. It’s typically likened to New York’s Central Park as households typically collect for festivals and youngsters play on the park all through the day.
The federal government on Sunday ordered home tv channels to not report on the alleged assault, citing the necessity to defend the lady’s identification.
In a press release, Pakistan’s Digital Media Regulatory Authority mentioned any broadcast of stories stories was “prohibited with speedy impact.”
Greater than 5,200 girls reported being raped within the nation in 2021, in response to Pakistan’s Human Rights Fee, however consultants consider the precise quantity is far increased as many ladies are afraid to return ahead attributable to social stigma and sufferer blaming.
Fewer than 3% of sexual assault or rape circumstances lead to a conviction in Pakistan, Reuters reported in December 2020, citing Karachi-based non-profit Warfare Towards Rape.
In December 2020, Pakistan toughened its rape legal guidelines to create particular courts to attempt circumstances inside 4 months and supply medical examinations to girls inside six hours of a criticism being made. However activists say Pakistan continues to fail its girls and doesn’t have a nationwide regulation criminalizing home violence, leaving many susceptible to assault.
In 2021, the beheading of Noor Mukadam, a Pakistani ambassador’s daughter, despatched shockwaves by the nation with protesters calling on the federal government to do extra to guard girls.
Her killer, Zahir Jaffer, the 30-year-old son of an influential household and a twin Pakistan-US nationwide who knew Mukadam, was sentenced to dying by an Islamabad choose final February.
