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Tag: domestic violence

  • ‘Completely unnecessary’: Tere Bin’s latest episode is drawing criticism for including an attempted suicide scene

    Drama serial ‘Tere Bin’ had been hitting the right notes for a while with electrifying chemistry between Yumna Zaidi and Wahaj Ali who star as conflicted enemies turned lovers. Fans have lauded the series for Ali’s powerful acting as well as Zaidi’s feisty and headstrong character Meerab who isn’t afraid to stand up for what she believes in. However, a recent episode has left fans conflicted with some arguing that the series has diverted away from the true nature of the male lead, Murtasim.

    In the previous episode, Meerab is kidnapped by her male friend, Rohail, who takes her to his house and confesses his feelings to her. After being unable to contact his wife and panicking, Murtasim rescues her from Rohail’s clutches and threatens to shoot him if he ever comes near her again. But this incident leaves our hero traumatised, thinking that Meerab is still in love with Rohail and had gone to Karachi solely to meet him.

    Now in the latest episode, Murtasim refuses to engage with his wife, despite her attempts to make him happy while cooking his favorite dishes. As the attempts fall flat, Murtasim accuses her of cheating by visiting Rohail in Karachi. When Meerab’s explanation doesn’t satisfy him, he takes his wife to the rooftop and asks her to jump from there to prove herself.

    Fans have slammed this scene as a complete betrayal to Murtasim’s character. Something Haute editor Aamna Isani wrote that the scene was completely unnecessary and had shattered the efforts the show had made in the previous episodes to put Murtasim in a positive light.

    “Like the slap, the jump scene was also totally unnecessary and stripped Murtasim of the human light he was portrayed in when he cried. Very confused, poor writing I’d say. #TereBin,” she wrote.

    Journalist Marvi Sirmed criticised ‘Tere Bin’ for turning Murtasim in to an ‘alpha male’ who tries to domesticate the free-spirited and ambitious Meerab, and slammed the writer Noor Makhdoom for this controversial scene.

    “But this final nail in the coffin of sanity was put when a stupid toxic Murtasim asks Meerab to jump from roof in order to prove her innocence. A grim reminder of Seeta’s Agni Priksha. What nonsense. Really Ms Makhdoom, what bloody nonsense?” she wrote.

    Many users had to point out that in previous episodes, Murtasim had spent two nights in his village with the antagonist Haya, an act that had angered Meerab. But did it lead to Murtasim being forced to prove his innocence? Then why was this imposed over Meerab?

    This is not the first time Tere Bin has attracted criticism for including controversial scenes that were contrary to the characters’ build up. For instance, the slap scene in episode five attracted intense backlash as social media users criticised the show for peddling sexist stereotypes once more.

  • ‘The biggest mistake parents make is not teaching their daughters about their rights’ Komal Rizvi opens up about domestic abuse in her first marriage

    ‘The biggest mistake parents make is not teaching their daughters about their rights’ Komal Rizvi opens up about domestic abuse in her first marriage

    Singer and actress Komal Rizvi was a guest on Nadir Ali’s podcast where she opened up about her abusive first marriage and how she managed to escape it.
    Recalling her past, Rizvi revealed that she was quite naive at the time she got married, as she was only 21 years old and this was a semi-arranged marriage for which she had been given only four months to accept the propsal. The actress had lived in Dubai for a year, and later shifted to Oman when the beatings began, getting worse to the point that even the police had to be called.


    “I was 21 years old when I had gotten married, so I was very young
 When we lived in Oman, I didn’t have any family or friends that I could escape to, and my ex-husband never gave me any money to keep me under his control. One time, I called the police on him when he was beating me. But instead of taking action, they dismissed it as a domestic problem and left, leaving me completely alone with him.”

    Recalling what she had learned from her past ordeal, after getting a divorce four years later, the actress said she wished more parents would educate their children about understanding boundaries, because her husband would psychologically abuse her to believe the beatings she was receiving were her own fault.

    “Women from the start in our society are told that they will have a beautiful wedding, after which they will have a husband who will take care of all of their needs. Which is why, so many women are willing to give their 200% in order to make their marriages work. But I detest that we never teach women about the importance of establishing boundaries, that let alone their husband, no man can cross. Which is the thing I regret the most because then I would not have wasted three and a half years trying to make my marriage work. My husband would play all sorts of mind games to gaslight me and make me feel like I am responsible for the beatings because I made him angry. For instance, he would say ‘it’s your fault that you served me with cold food, so I hit a frying pan on your head.’ I kept believing that if I loved him better or worked harder, he would be proud of me.”

    Rizvi especially emphasized how important it is that women are emotionally strong and be vary of men who try to encourage them to abandon their careers and dreams, because this is how her husband treated her.

    “Men like my ex-husband, who are psychopaths, especially try to ensure that they trap the girl to prevent her from escaping in any way. They go after girls like me who were quiet independent and successful, and ask her to abandon all of this in order to become a wife. They want a simple, meek girl who has no independence or opinions of her own, so they can bend her in to two pieces.”

    After escaping her abusive marriage, Rizvi recalled that it was incredibly difficult to be happy and come out of her dark hole, and said that it’s important that society helps women understand that their life isn’t over after a divorce, and provide them with the support system and care one needs.

    ‘Because I was very young when I got divorced. I used to think ‘Oh my life is over! Who would marry me?’ Now I look back and I’m shocked that I said things like this because I remind myself today that I still have a long way to go!” joked Rizvi.

    On the lesson she wished parents, and especially men, would take away from her revelation, Rizvi said that men need to learn to respect women, and ensure that when they’re bringing a woman who had a lot of protection when she lived with her parents, ‘Make sure you provide her the same amount of honor, respect and love. And when she becomes the mother of your children, provide her with twice the amount of love and care than you usually gave.”

  • Pakistani-American family arrested for abuse, forced labor of woman

    Pakistani-American family arrested for abuse, forced labor of woman

    A Pakistani-American family living in the United States of America (USA) has been sentenced on Monday to serve between five to twelve years in jail for physical violence and forced labor inflicted upon a Pakistani woman. Federal authorities have described this case as the ‘modern-day equivalence of slavery’.
    As reported by US newspaper Richmond Times, the three defendants, matriarch Zahida Aman along with her two sons, Mohammad Rehan Chaudhri (49) and Mohammad Nauman Chaudhri (55), had used physical labor, verbal abuse and coercion against the survivor, Maria Butt, to get her to serve thousands of hours of domestic labor ‘for 12 long years’, said federal authorities in a statement.
    “Indeed, during the course of their illegal agreement and in furtherance of their criminal conspiracy, each defendant assaulted, verbally attacked and abused [the victim’s] children to carefully construct a climate of fear that continuously compelled her labor,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen Miller and Shea Gibbons revealed in a court statement.
    Butt was married to Salman Chaudhri, the eldest son of Aman in January 2002 when she was living in Pakistan. She claimed that she had not met her husband before their marriage. After moving to the United States, Butt recalled her husband telling her that if she wanted to keep him happy, then she must fulfil the obligations of his family.
    Shortly after moving to the US, Butt was called in a family meeting by Aman where the victim was asked to surrender her legal documents, including the jewlery gifted by her family, as well as a notebook listing the contact numbers of her family members back home.
    Prosecutors note that due to this act, the survivor “had no legal documentation, assets of value or contact information for her family and friends within months of arriving in the United States. She was becoming completely dependent on the defendants for basic necessities and emotional support.”
    After her arrival, the survivor was forced to perform an endless amount of housework which included cleaning bedrooms, wiping down the kitchen and, as prosecuters pointed out, had ‘become a robot of the house’ who basically had to respond to all of the requests of the family members.
    Soon, the survivor was made to perform incredibly difficult tasks like moving the lawn with a push mover, hand-washing and line-drying area rugs, including painting the inside and outside of the family’s two-storey house. When she would refuse, the survivor was slapped or subjected to cruel punishments like in one instance, she was tied with rope and pushed down the stairs infrount of her children for simply using a family member’s phone to call her husband.
    “As the type of work the defendants required [the victim] to perform intensified, so too did the coercive scheme they employed to compel her labor,” prosecutors said in the trial brief. “The defendants used a combination of coercive means, including physical assaults, verbal abuse, isolation, starvation and threats of deportation to create a climate of fear that compelled [the victim’s] labor,” prosecutors said.
    The survivor’s husband, Salman Chaudhri, was not dtsying regularly in the family’s home, and had moved to Pennsylvania for his medical education and then to California to set up his practice. He got engaged to another woman in 2013. The survivor revealed that the husband did not take her, or their four children with him to California.
    Prosecuters also revealed that the family also tried to separate the survivor from her children. They revealed that the children were encouraged to spit on their mother, and had been convinced that she was dangerous. The children were also belittled and punished if they would ever show any kindness to their mother.
    In May 2016, the survivor managed to escape with her brother from Pakistan and had filed a police case with Chesterfield County Police detective Laura Kay, after which the family members were placed under arrest.
    “After two months of rebuilding her relationships with her family and gaining emotional courage, [the victim] contacted [her brother], who helped her leave the home,” prosecutors wrote. The survivor “subsequently gained full custody of her children, despite a contested custody battle with the defendants.”

  • Karachi father throws his two children in sea after fight with wife

    Karachi father throws his two children in sea after fight with wife

    A man threw his two children into the sea near Mantora seaside in Karachi on Thursday. The man is a male nurse by profession.

    The man acknowledged in a video message that he threw his kids into the water because he was fed up with his family’s problems. He said that his wife was having an affair and that her family was supporting her. The man claimed to be a nurse by profession and an Essa Nagri inhabitant. He added that he attempted suicide by jumping into the water but was unsuccessful.


    As per the police the search operation to find the children was under way.

  • Woman in Lahore allegedly killed by husband, in-laws over domestic dispute

    Woman in Lahore allegedly killed by husband, in-laws over domestic dispute

    A woman in Lahore was allegedly tortured and then murdered by her husband and in-laws, ARY has reported.


    Details indicate that the event occurred in the Nishtar Colony area of Lahore, where a woman was allegedly tortured and killed by her husband and in-laws over a domestic quarrel.


    The woman, who had been subjected to assault, was taken to a hospital where she passed away while receiving treatment, according to a statement from the police.
    On the complaint of the victim’s brother, Nisar, a first information report (FIR) has been filed against the husband and in-laws.


    The FIR claimed that after the torture, suspects Arshad, Ashraf, and Neelam administered poison to the woman.
    Police are conducting raids to arrest all the accused involved.

  • Pakistan has spoken: no space for men like Feroze Khan

    Pakistan has spoken: no space for men like Feroze Khan

    Domestic violence can be described as power misused by one adult in a relationship to control another. It is the establishment of control and fear in a relationship through violence and other forms of abuse. Domestic violence is not simply about an ‘argument’. It is a pattern of coercive control that one person exercises over another. Abusers use physical and sexual violence, threats, emotional insults, and economic deprivation as a way to dominate their victims.

    Pakistan is no stranger to this violence. In fact, our dramas promote violent men who become heroes in the end. According to the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017-2018, about 28 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 experience violence at the hands of their partners in their lifetimes. That’s a very high number. According to the survey, 80 per cent percent of married women who have experienced physical violence since age 15 report their current husband as the perpetrator, while 8 per cent name a former husband as the perpetrator. Previously, the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012-2013 estimated that 32 per cent of women have experienced physical violence in Pakistan and 40 per cent of married women have suffered from spousal abuse at some point in their life. However, experts say that the actual number may be a lot higher as most women in Pakistan never tell others or even seek help.

    Syeda Aliza officially filed for divorce from actor Feroze Khan on September 3. Aliza’s pictures from the court hearing went viral on social media. The mother-of-two presented evidence of domestic violence against her, done by her husband Feroze Khan, in court. Aliza took to social media and shared she had to “endure infidelity, blackmail and degradation” by Feroze. After the pictures of Aliza’s bruised arms and eye, along with a medical report detailing her injuries, went viral, she received massive support from people who might have not spoken if evidence wasn’t revealed. These documents resulted in an outpouring of support from members of the entertainment industry. Multiple actors from the entertainment industry came forward to condemn Feroze’s alleged violent attacks on his ex-wife. Colleagues of Feroze categorically berated the actor’s ill-treatment towards his wife and lambasted him for subjecting Aliza to domestic violence. Actor Iqra Aziz in an Instagram post has said that she is retracting from a project with Feroze Khan after he was accused of domestic violence. Khan’s drama Habs director, Musadiq Malik, spoke up against Feroze despite having worked with him in Habs, an ongoing serial.

    In a classic act of cowardice, actor Feroze Khan released a statement denying all abuse allegations levied against him a day after fellow celebrities and social media rallied behind his ex-wife. Calling them false, he said as a believer in human rights, he has “never knowingly hurt another human being”. Despite Khan’s denial, the entertainment industry rallied behind Aliza en masse, offering their full support.

    This incident makes us question the morality of some men, their upbringing, and sheer arrogance. Why does a woman always have to show evidence of violence? Her word should be enough. But it has also given us hope. The way that celebrities have come out in support of Feroze’s wife, regardless of the fact that people usually remain silent when one of their own is tainted, is inspiring. Can it be? Will the public outcry against Feroze lead to a public and outright ban? Or like others, will Feroze also get away with it? ‘Kya Yaar, what’s the big deal, men will be men’ keh kar khatam kareinge baat? We don’t think so. This time women, men, and Pakistan has had enough.

  • Nine women murdered in Peshawar in a week

    Nine women murdered in Peshawar in a week

    According to the police, nine women, including a girl child, were killed in Peshawar in the last week. Incidents of women’s murders have taken place in Dawoodzai, Matni, Shahpur, Khazana and Regi.

    A female child was killed in a firing between two parties in Shangri. According to the police, most incidents of murder of women are cases of domestic violence and honour killing.

    The cases of murder of women were registered in their respective police stations, and the police have arrested 4 suspects involved in the incidents.

    As per the data compiled by the Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) and the Centre for Research, Development and Communication (CRDC), the month of July saw 16 incidents of physical assault reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
    (KP), three cases of abduction occurred, 11 cases of rape were reported and17 cases of domestic violence were reported. 32 children were sexually abused and 27 children were kidnapped. 11 cases of physical violence against children were reported and three children were murdered. One child labour case was reported.

  • ‘Meri betiyoun ki Shaadi kisi insaan se karna’: last words of Woman sub-inspector who committed suicide

    ‘Meri betiyoun ki Shaadi kisi insaan se karna’: last words of Woman sub-inspector who committed suicide

    A female sub-inspector Mary Rose has committed suicide in Rahim Yar Khan allegedly over domestic issues.

    Her last words were: “Dua krna meri jaan aasani se nikal jaye, Meri betiyou ki Shaadi kisi insaan se karna., jo unki zimdari utha sake”(Please pray that my soul is taken away peacefully. Marry my daughters to a human who can take responsibility).

    Family members of Rose have blamed the senior police officers of the district for her act. Rose’s grandfather, Hadayat Masih, told reporters at his home on Thursday that she was depressed because she had not been granted wedlock transfer or leave.

    However, SP Investigation Captain (retd) Mohammad Dost refuted the claims that Rose took the step after her leave request was denied, saying that the department had no clue that Rose was going through such pain, adding that the department would have done something to help her. Dost stated that the police officer left a message before committing suicide in which she stated unequivocally that the reason for her suicide was domestic issues.

    “She used to put additional effort in every case, used to lead by example and also used to take care of their issues by contacting higher officials”, said the SP while talking about the deceased soul.

    The SP claimed that Rose came to his office the day before her suicide to pick up a cheque and was very calm.

  • Pope Francis denounces domestic violence as ‘almost Satanic’

    The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, condemned domestic violence against women as ‘almost Satanic’ during a programme on the national TV channel of Italy named TG5 network on Sunday evening. It is one of the strongest languages he has ever used on any issue.

    He was speaking to panelists belonging to difficult backgrounds, including a survivor of domestic abuse. In the programme, issues such as domestic violence, poverty, and economic impact on citizens due to the pandemic were discussed.

    The Pope expressed his serious concern about a very high number of women who faced abuse and were beaten in their homes.

    He said, “The problem is that, for me, it is almost satanic because it is taking advantage of a person who cannot defend herself, who can only [try to] block the blows.”

    He added, “It is humiliating. Very humiliating.”

    He spoke these words to the survivor of domestic abuse, Giovanna, who shared her experience of escaping from a violent home with her four children.

    He added encouraging words by saying that women who suffered abuse do not lose their dignity.

    He told Giovanna, “I see dignity in you because if you didn’t have dignity, you wouldn’t be here.”

    While addressing the survivor, he urged to keep hope alive even during the pandemic.

    He added a supporting comment, “You are giving an example of resistance, a lesson of resistance to calamities,” he said. “You are coming out better than before.”

  • Sharmila Faruqi blasts ‘Khuda Aur Mohabbat 3’ for showcasing violence against women

    Sharmila Faruqi has criticised Pakistani dramas for showing violence and physical abuse against women. The politician took to her Instagram account to share a screenshot from the drama Khuda Aur Mohabbat 3 of a scene in which a husband is slapping his wife.

    “Why can’t our dramas show a husband having a normal conversation with his wife? Why do our women have to be resorted violence and physical abuse at the drop of a hat?”

    “What you show in these dramas is what most of our people will emulate.. In the last episode of khuda aur mohabbat, Nazim shah slaps his wife Sahiba while questioning her about her visit to the mazaar with Mahi.”

    “This could have been a very normal conversation between the couple but unfortunately our writers revel in the fact that once a man is angry he will resort to violence towards the women in his life. Can we show some decent man who do believe in respecting a woman?”, she concluded.

    The politician earlier schooled Gohar Rasheed for his stance on the slap scene in Laapata.