QUETTA, BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN - 2021/07/30: Members of Women Democratic Front and Civil Society Organization holding placards during the protest against Noor Mukkadam murder. Noor, 27, daughter of former Pakistani diplomat Shaukat Mukadam, was found murdered at a residence in Islamabad's upscale Sector F-7/4. (Photo by Din Muhammad Watanpaal/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The beheading of a diplomat’s daughter shows how badly Pakistan is failing its women

On Apr 10, 2022

Few cases of femicide make headlines in Pakistan, but the beheading of an ambassador’s daughter promises to test a legal system activists say has repeatedly failed victims of violence and needs urgent reform.

According to a police report seen by CNN, Noor Mukadam, 27, died on July 20 after being allegedly tortured and killed by an acquaintance — Zahir Jaffer, the 30-year-old son of an influential family and a dual Pakistan-US national.
Mukadam’s death may have been lost in Pakistan’s crime statistics, if not for her status and Jaffer’s family connections, as well as the affluent location of the killing in block F7, one of Islamabad’s most exclusive neighborhoods.

In the days after her death, Pakistanis demanded #JusticeforNoor on Twitter, and a GoFundMe page to raise money for her family’s legal fees hit almost $50,000 before her family requested it be closed, according to a message on the site.