Daily Times

We have heard many a times of cannibalistic situations where men have set precedents in hurting, torturing or killing women. Gruesome, vile and unethical horror stories that we brush off thinking they couldn’t be true because we can’t fathom the extent to which the human mind can go to fulfill its sadistic pleasures.

Be it in Pakistan or anywhere in the world, hate crimes in general and against women are rising at alarming rates. A number of factors could attribute for this rise including intoxication, excess wealth, and unaddressed psychological issues.

Renowned German broadcaster “Deutsche Welle” (DW) has stated that Pakistan ranks as the sixth most dangerous country in the world for women, with cases of sexual crimes and domestic violence recording a rapid rise.

While intoxication and wealth are external stimuli that force the brain to provide a response, branches of psychology can be highlighted here to discuss why humans, especially, the young man from Islamabad named Zahir Jaffer mercilessly killed and beheaded a woman.

The case of Zahir Jaffer has, undoubtedly, shook the hearts of the nation when news circulated of the brutal murder of Noor Mukadam, daughter of the former ambassador to South Korea of Pakistan. The alleged killer pounded the girl with a knuckleduster before beheading her in Islamabad’s F-7/4 sector.

According to police reports, the man was discovered playing with Noor’s decapitated head when the team found him in the pool of blood scattered around the room.

The goose bump inducing fact about this case is that the accused was, himself, a certified therapist running a therapy center in the hub of Islamabad and treating mental illnesses while, ironically, being in a much more worse condition.

Nevertheless, Noor Mukadam’s slaughter has shaken women all around the country and has reinforced the simple concept that women are not treated or considered human beings.

A question that comes to my mind whenever I wonder about Noor or her last moments are that did Zahir, a man educated from the best potential institutes and carrying a legacy of a reputable family name, think about the absurdity of his actions while he picked up the knife to rip her head off?

Noor may have been a girl and a daughter like all the daughters out there but her murder sparks a debate about the sanity of predators that hunt women and want them to be at the disposal of their fragile ego that can be broken by any tiny act of rebellion a woman can show.

As Zara Haider, a close friend of the deceased has worded, Noor’s name will soon be just another hashtag in the vast list of trending ones. Will justice be served?

If the accused flees the justice system just like many others prior to him, will women in the country ever feel safe again? The answer is no. The reason is that there are so many men like Zahir Jaffer out there, masking an attire of being just another normal, responsible citizen living in the elite hubs of the country that the filtration process becomes onerous.

However, the probability that crime can so easily be rubbed off from the slate and can surpass the judicial body will surely be a dark day for Pakistan in the coming future. Institutional corrections are the need of the hour and punishment must be immediate, calculated and fair to set a precedent for justice.

Justice must be served for Noor, so as to provide justice to every Noor who has been or will be murdered or killed at the hands of patriarchy in this country.