Islamabad: Hundreds gathered outside the National Press Club on Saturday evening to mourn the death of Hina Javed and demand an end to femicide in Pakistan. The candlelight vigil, largely attended by women, called for stronger legislation against domestic violence and an end to the culture of impunity that shields perpetrators.
Javed’s body was found in her apartment in Rawalpindi bearing signs of torture. Police have arrested her husband and a domestic worker in connection with the case.
Participants lit candles and placed flower bouquets beside pictures of Javed while chanting slogans demanding justice. Her cousin, Sarah Afreen Malik, addressed the gathering with visible grief. She described the 45-year-old Javed as accomplished and said she was killed after only nine months of marriage. “Our family will never be the same; we are never going to recover,” she said.
Another cousin, RJ and host Sabah Bano Malik, urged Pakistan to formally classify gender-based violence as femicide and allocate resources accordingly. “We want Pakistan to declare gender-based violence an active femicide and to put resources towards it,” she said. She called for public media campaigns and education drives, noting that headlines reporting women’s deaths four times a day reflect a national crisis.
A 29-year-old artist at the vigil said a patriarchal and misogynistic mindset has long normalised violence against women. She pointed out that Pakistan ranks at the bottom of the global gender index and stressed that laws, societal norms, and the culture of reducing women to symbols of “honour” all need to change.
Data from the UNFPA underlines the severity of the problem. In Pakistan, 28 percent of women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence and 6 percent have experienced sexual violence. Thirty-four percent of ever-married women have faced spousal physical, sexual, or emotional violence.
Barrister Irum Ali told the gathering that the justice system, the state, and even families have failed women. “A woman is not considered a human being,” she said, pointing to fragile male egos and toxic masculinity as root causes.
A software engineer present said reform starts at the family level. “The government cannot come into your home and change your parents’ minds,” he said, adding that educational institutions remain the most effective avenue the state has to shape young minds.
A colleague of Javed’s said violence against women has become rampant and warned that things will not change unless boys are taught from an early age to respect women as equals.
