Stab victim Khadija Siddiqi: ‘My case is a fight for all Pakistani women’
Islamabad: A student who was stabbed 23 times in daylight in one of Pakistan’s busiest streets has accused the country’s justice system of misogyny after her attacker, having been found guilty of attempted murder, was sensationally acquitted last week. Khadija Siddiqi was ambushed as she collected her six-year-old sister from school two years ago. She was repeatedly slashed across the throat and abdomen by fellow student Shah Hussain in an attack she said was motivated by revenge after she had spurned his advances.
She escaped with her life only after her driver managed to drag Hussain off her. Her attacker was sentenced to seven years in prison – the minimum for attempted murder.
But in an extraordinary turn, last week he was acquitted by the high court following claims by his lawyers that it had been Siddiqi who had pursued him, based on a letter she had written when she was 17, and that she had wanted the case to become “high profile”.
In a country where there are estimated to be more than 1000 so-called “honour killings” a year, her case has become a cause celebre, with the acquittal viewed by some as effectively sanctioning violence against women.
Siddiqi’s lawyer, Hassaan Niazi, said it was “the worst form of victim blaming”. Speaking to the Observer, Siddiqi said women were being undermined by a patriarchal system that deters them from reporting crimes such as rape and “honour” violence because “of the stigma against women in the justice system, in which the onus is on the woman to prove she is the victim”.
She added: “My struggle is a test case for all women who come into the court system. We are the targets of character assassination, and when it comes to motive, the onus is on the woman to prove her innocence instead of the criminal’s guilt.