Murder of TikK-Darin: Pakistani women ask about safe places
Murder of TikK-Darin: Pakistani women ask about safe places
Islamabad, Pakistan - Sana Yousaf celebrated her 17th birthday and shared a video of her celebrations with more than a million followers on Tiktok. In this clip she cut a pink and cream -colored cake under a suitable balloon arch. The Juni-Wind played with her long hair while shining in front of the backdrop of the cloud-covered Margalla Hills in Pakistan's capital Islamabad.
Less than 24 hours later, Sana was dead. A shot had hit her in the middle of the heart, and graphic pictures of her lifeless body spread rapidly on social media in Pakistan. This brought women across the country into rage because they fear that there are no more secure places for them - neither in reality nor online.
arrest of the suspect
The police arrested the 22-year-old Umar Hayat, an unemployed man from the city of Faisalabad, because of Sina's murder. Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, the police chief of Islamabad, claimed that Hayat had repeatedly tried to contact the teenager and killed her when she didn't want to react. CNN has so far not been able to find a legal representative of Hayat.
Family suffering and social reactions
Sanana's father, Syed Yousaf Hassan, told CNN that no words could describe the loss of the family. His daughter never told him about harassment. "My daughter was braver than a son," he said. "She was not afraid of anything." While the von Sana family was preparing for their funeral, disturbing comments appeared among their TikTok and Instagram posts, which were mostly written in Urdu and celebrated their death. "I am glad that things like that happen," wrote one. Another commented: "My heart is happy today, I will turn on music and dance with joy."
The culture of blame
Under a picture of Sana, on which she wears traditional Pakistani clothing, there was a comment that said: "Encourage young women to look for or expose themselves, can have serious negative consequences." The Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), a non-profit organization led by women that works for online security, explained that such a rhetoric "dangerously linked the online presence or supposed morale of a woman with justifications for violence."
"This form of digital vigilantism contributes to a broader culture of the victim accusation in which abuse is normalized while the responsibility is distracted by the perpetrators," added the DRF in a report shortly after Sina's death. In addition to the toxic online comments, the anger of women across Pakistan, which demanded justice for Sana and indicated a crisis of masculinity in the South Asian nation.
global perspective on violence against women
Pakistan is not the only place where heated debates about the extent of violence against women are led. In Latin America there were recently several . These incidents triggered outrage and highlighted the high rates of female female on the continent.
The reality of online nuisance
Sanana's content on Tikkok were commonplace for every teenager. Her recent videos included fashion snippets, singing songs while driving and filming a hair dryer in the salon. For prominent fighters for women's rights, however, Sana's death was the ultimate result of unlimited online abuse towards women in a patriarchal country.
Amber Rahim Shamsi, a well -known journalist and editor -in -chief of the digital platform Nukta, reported that she was brutally harassed online in 2020, among other things because of her views on women's rights. "I was also persecuted online and was afraid when my stalker started to send me cups and framed photos to my office. I am only an example of millions of women from all areas of life. Most do not have the privilege or the social security nets to protect themselves," Shamsi told Cnn.
A call to change
shamsi agrees that there is a crisis of masculinity, "especially how it affects our digital rooms." And that it has to be talked about "not only for the good of women, but also the men." According to Shamsi, “the social media world has increased the voices of women - especially young women - who are increasingly educated, politically consciously and intrepidly in their decisions. This visibility, this self -confidence, worries some men who have grew up by believing that their authority and control are a matter of course.”
The DRF found in its report that its hotline has documented “over 20,000 cases of technology-based gender-specific violence and online threats since 2017.”
Kanwal Ahmed, a Pakistani social entrepreneur and storyteller, runs Sister Sister Pakistan, a Facebook group that was founded in 2013 with over 300,000 followers. For years she was a popular safe digital space for Pakistani women, but Ahmed says that the criticism at her side is tireless. "We were described as a woman-hate, trauma-binding club where all women only clap," said Ahmed, who works with volunteers to help women post them on their side.
The reality of the threat
Sana is not the only one who was confronted with unwanted online attention that has passed into real life. Ahmed remembered a case in 2019 in which a young woman was persecuted by a man after a friend had leaked her number online. "The only difference between her and Sana is that she was not killed, the stalker was in front of her door," said Ahmed. "You don't have to be an influencer to be confronted with it; everyone can happen."
Natalia Tariq, the head of resource mobilization in the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), a global network of social activists who use the Internet to make the world better, told CNN that there is "a complete culture of impunity" about gender -specific violence on the Internet. The existing regulations and guidelines in the country are "completely inadequate," she said.
focus on men
The Pakistani government has received a lot of praise for the sensitive and quick handling of Sana's murder, but some commentators believe that this fails the core of the problem. Usama Khilji, the director of Bolo Bhi, an advocacy group for digital rights, said Pakistan had to talk about solving boys about online nuisance. "Men in management positions have to talk about these topics," says Khilji.
Khilji emphasized that hate speech against women in Pakistan still enjoys "no priority" and asked the government to "show leadership in the fight against online crimes against women." Sana's murder happened less than two weeks after a pioneering judgment of the country's Supreme Court, which confirmed the death penalty for Zahir Jaffer, who murdered the daughter of a respected diplomat in 2021.
Brutal beheading had shocked the country and renewed the demands for better protection for victims of gender -specific violence. Noor's father, Shaukat Mukadam, was praised for his tireless commitment to justice for his daughter. After the verdict, the family of Noor A declaration in which she "has a powerful memory that the life of women counts" designated.
Sana's father, Hassan, spoke of CNN of his immense love for his daughter, her plans, doctor, and the simple things that gave her joy, like birthday parties. "Every moment with her was unforgettable," he said.
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