Throwing a nouveau riche predator for a distasteful video laced with brazen torture of a girl old enough to be his daughter behind bars does not even remotely come close to serving justice to the hapless Khadija in Faisalabad. Till now, as many as 15 suspects have been booked, including the father-daughter duo, over charges of abduction, torture, extortion and sexual assault. But in the wake of a rather confusing new apology video making rounds on social media, the enthusiasm to catch the culprits appears nothing but a futile exercise. As always, a little money will be thrown here and a pretty little death threat waged there, and the case and its gory details will pass into oblivion. What transpired in the drawing room of the ultra-rich industrialist as he made Khadija lick shoes and beg for mercy was the prima facie face of Pakistani society. Unadulterated, filthily pompous and rotten to the core! Because apparently, no woman could be audacious enough to refuse a marriage proposal. Considering the ease with which she can be kidnapped and forbidden from seeing the light of the day, she should be thanking her stars at being given a manana from heaven. After all, ours is a society that actually thrives in its vile acts committed against the so-called gentler sex. That one promising daughter of Punjab recently announced her well-deserved promotion to the BPS-18 rank while another’s face is being broadcasted far and wide in a scandal that should have named and shamed her wrongdoer screams of irony. However, much more painstakingly obvious is the fact that no woman is safe anywhere in this Islamic Republic of Pakistan that takes great pride in singing its cliched chant, “Maavan, Dhiyaan, Pehnaan. Sanjhian!” Reemphasising how Pakistan is ranked 154th on the Global Gender Gap Report and almost 90 per cent of the country’s women have experienced some form of domestic violence has started falling on deaf ears. Call it a glaring failure of Parliament’s Domestic Violence Bill or the fault in our criminal justice system, everyone from the state to the judiciary to the people around have gladly let their biases and patriarchal traditions get in the way of women’s pursuit of a secure today and a safer tomorrow. Going by the abolition of a demeaning “two-finger virginity test” in rape investigations by Justice Ayesha Malik, our law and legislation would both need the blood and sweat of charismatic female icons for the real change to come forward. Until then, may God be with every Pakistani female as she battles the demons near and far, day in and out. *