published
A man shot dead his newborn daughter in Pakistan on Sunday. He had wanted a son. After several days of manhunt, he was arrested on Wednesday evening.
Violence against women and girls is common in Pakistan.
IMAGO/Pacific Press Agency
Here, women in Lahore demonstrate against violence and for equality on International Women’s Day.
IMAGO/Pacific Press Agency
A man was arrested in Pakistan on Wednesday evening.
He is said to have killed his newborn daughter with five shots.
The father had been on the run since the murder.
Violence against women and girls is a structural problem in Pakistan.
A man has been arrested in Pakistan for allegedly killing his newborn daughter. The man shot and killed the one-week-old girl named Jannat Fatima, the police said on Thursday, out of disappointment that her first-born child was not a boy. He fired five shots. The man has been on the run since the incident in the city of Mianwali in Punjab province on Sunday. After a search lasting several days and several raids, the man was finally arrested on Wednesday evening.
Violence against women and girls is a sad reality
In Pakistan, which is strongly patriarchal, sons are considered a better guarantee of financial security. Girls and women are therefore very often exposed to violence. Police spokesman Zarrar Khan said the man had complained before the crime that he had wanted a son rather than a daughter. He was “very angry” about the birth of the girl. His wife also confirmed this.
Unfortunately, violence against newborn girls and pregnant women happens again and again in Pakistan. A shocking event had already occurred in Pakistan a month ago: a self-proclaimed faith healer had hit a pregnant woman’s forehead with a five-centimetre-long nail – allegedly to ensure that she would give birth to a son. The woman survived after the nail was surgically removed.
Allegedly, the husband put the woman under pressure: If she didn’t bear him a son, he would get a divorce, Spiegel reported.
structural problem
Murders of newborn girls and abortions of unborn girls lead to a global decline in the ratio of female to male children. Not only in Pakistan there is a cultural preference of sons over daughters. With the help of prenatal diagnostics, it is becoming increasingly easier to determine the gender of the unborn child. In many places, this leads to targeted abortions. According to a study by the British Medical Journal, this could result in 4.7 million fewer girls being born by 2030.
(AFP / fis)