Faiza Rauf, 35, endured her husband’s violence for ten years. During this time, she also gave birth to four children. But after a similar incident in July 2022, she couldn’t take it anymore and reached the police station with a complaint against her husband. According to her, on that day, her husband beat her in front of the children so much that her body was marked in places, her lips started bleeding and her teeth also became loose.

Faiza Rauf belongs to the Rehman Garden area of Sheikhupura. She has a Master’s degree in Management Sciences and Business Administration.

She says that 11 years ago, she married a man named Nisar Ahmed, but after a few days of marriage, she learned that her husband had a previous marriage. However, she endured all this because she did not want to traumatise her parents.

In ten years, she had three daughters and a son. But, during this period, she was frequently subjected to violence by her husband. Now that her children were growing up, she wanted to keep them away from this environment. That’s why, after enduring the worst violence for the last time, she went to the hospital, got her medical report prepared, and then went to the police station.

In the FIR registered at the police station on her request, it is written that Faiza’s medical report shows signs of torture on her face and body.

Her case remained under trial in the Family Court for several months, presided by Judge  Saiqa Younas. During this period, her husband divorced her. The court ruled in favour of Faiza in the case and ordered the husband to pay fifty thousand rupees per month for the maintenance of the children.

Now, Faiza lives at her parents’ house with her children. Her three children go to school, while one girl is just two. Faiza is determined to support her children alone and is looking for a job for this purpose.

According to the report of the District Anti-Women Harassment Cell of Sheikhupura, 1,503 cases of violence against women were registered this year.

Two thousand nine hundred eighty-three people were involved in these cases, out of which the police arrested 1,629 people while 507 were declared innocent.

According to the report, challans for 603 cases have been submitted to the court, out of which 540 cases are under investigation while 360 cases have been rejected.

Advocate Rana Umair Iqbal, who has pursued several cases of violence against women, believes that these are the cases which have been reported, i.e. those whose complaints have been registered in the concerned police stations, which have been referred to the family courts. There are many more incidents which are not reported and the reason for this is our social system in which women consider violence as a destiny and husband’s house as their life and death to save their home.

“In our society, a daughter is taught that her husband is her everything, so she endures violence to save her home. Also, daughters don’t complain to honour their parents and save them from trouble.”

According to Umair Iqbal, he has witnessed many such cases of violence in which women refused to take legal action against them for brutal violence by their husbands or other relatives.

Recently, a video of a daughter-in-law being tortured by a father-in-law in the village of Jandiala Sher Khan went viral on social media. The investigation revealed that the accused is Latif Ahmed, who is torturing his daughter-in-law only because she did not get food on time.

The woman who was tortured is Shazia Bibi, and nine years ago, she was married to Sajid, a resident of Jandiala Sher Khan, who is based in South Africa for employment.

According to the residents of the area, the husband of the affected woman has also tortured his wife several times over trivial matters and the violence of the father-in-law on Shazia is not a new thing, but it is a daily routine.

This viral video was made by Abid, the victim’s brother-in-law, standing on the house’s second floor and sending it to his relative, who then posted it on social media.

As soon as this video went viral, the police swung into action, contacted the victim and decided to take legal action. But then another video of Shazia came out in which she declared that she would not take any legal action against her father-in-law and called the entire incident her fault.

Dr Sobia, a psychiatrist at Sheikhupura District Headquarters Hospital psychiatrist, says that the main reason for violence against women is a lack of education and awareness. Because the man wants to exercise his authority, considering himself superior to the woman, and whenever a woman expresses her displeasure, the man gets angry and tortures her.

According to her, the economic conditions are also very influential, due to which the home environment is not pleasant and incidents of violence occur.  In society, women are subjected to physical and mental violence and torture. After marriage, it becomes difficult for her to live in an environment that is not the same as in the past. Often, she is forced to do things that her mind does not accept, so she suffers from mental fatigue.

According to a report by an NGO called ‘Organisation for Sustainable Social Development’, one woman is physically harassed in Punjab every hour, one woman is kidnapped every half hour and nine women are subjected to sexual violence every day.