Melissa Velasquez Loaiza
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) – A Pakistani court on Monday freed a convicted rapist after it was “agreed” that he would marry his victim, his lawyer said, angering human rights activists who say the sentence risks to normalize sexual violence in the South Asian nation.
Daulat Khan, 23, was convicted in May of raping a 36-year-old deaf woman in 2020 in northeastern Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to his lawyer Amjad Ali Khan.
He was sentenced to life in prison and fined 100,000 rupees (about $440), said the lawyer, who is not related to his client.
The woman later gave birth to a boy following the rape, the lawyer added.
The man who pleaded guilty to the rape and sexual abuse of four teenagers will not go to jail
The Peshawar High Court on Monday acquitted Daulat Khan after the two were legally wed in early December following an out-of-court settlement made by a local ‘jirga’, a council of elders that makes decisions according to the law of the Sharia.
Sharia law, also known as Islamic law, is an interpretation of sacred texts and faith traditions that varies widely in the Muslim world.
Swat is a largely rural and conservative district, where ingrained, often brutal, patriarchal and misogynistic attitudes prevail. In 2012, activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban in Swat for defying their orders not to go to school.
It is not uncommon for a jirga to settle cases in many parts of Pakistan on so-called taboo subjects, such as childbirth outside of wedlock. Critics have long accused the jirga of perpetuating a culture of victim shaming, particularly on issues of rape and sexual assault.
Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission (HRCP) called the Peshawar court’s verdict a “gross violation of the law” and a “mistrial error”.
“HRCP urges the state to appeal the ruling and remain committed to women’s rights,” it said in a statement.
The alleged rapist and his mother torched a girl after learning she was pregnant, Indian police say
Misogyny and patriarchy in Pakistan
In 2021, more than 5,200 women reported being raped in Pakistan, according to an HRCP report, but activists say the number could be much higher as the crime often goes unreported out of fear.
In Pakistan, the problem is exacerbated by corruption in the courts and within the police, experts say.
According to the Legal Aid Society, a non-governmental organization that provides legal aid to disadvantaged people, about 60 percent of rape victims withdraw their claims, mostly due to a lack of power to address the country’s severely under-performing justice system.
In December 2020, Pakistan tightened its rape laws to create special courts to try cases within four months and provide women with medical tests within six hours of filing a complaint.
But activists say Pakistan continues to fail its women and has no national law that criminalizes domestic violence, leaving many vulnerable to assault.
In February, social media star Qandeel Baloch’s brother was freed by a Pakistani appeals court, three years after he was found guilty of killing her for “disgracing” the family.
Pakistan’s so-called “honor killings” often involve the killing of a woman by a relative who believes she has brought dishonor on the family. At the time of Baloch’s murder, Pakistani law allowed the victim’s family to pardon a convicted murderer.
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