A recent report by a Pakistani human rights organization noted a disturbing increase in reported cases of violence against women. Over 4,000 cases were reported there in 2007 alone, including several hundred women who were raped, kidnapped, harassed or murdered as part of so-called “honor killings”. Unfortunately, as we know all too well in the United States, many more cases likely went unreported, so the figure may be even more grim.
The late Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto recently wrote about violence against Muslim women in her final book, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. For more about the issue, see this perspective from the Muslim Women’s League and Women for Women International.
