Sobia Batool Shah is being protected in hospital after a mob of male relatives attacked her in a harrowing case that highlights Pakistan’s epidemic of gender-based violence

The household was fast asleep when the six men broke in. They sought out Sobia Batool Shah, 22, and one of them attacked her with a hatchet, chopping at her limbs in an effort to sever her legs. “He was relentless and must have hit me at least 15 times,” she says.

“I screamed in pain and pleaded with him to stop, but he was like a man possessed,” she adds. “I even told him I will not seek a divorce.”

Shah was attacked by men from her own family – including her father, Syed Mustafa Shah, her uncle and cousins – who broke into the house, in Naushahro Feroze, in Pakistan’s Sindh province, as “punishment” for refusing to withdraw her application to divorce her husband.

Speaking to the Guardian by phone from the Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women, in the city of Nawabshah, where she is being treated, Shah says she is in “immense pain” and her legs are both in plaster.

  • SeaJEnglish
    10•3 months ago

    I do not give Islam a pass. But there is nothing in the Quran that advocates for something like this. There is certainly quite a bit of misogyny in the Quran but when it comes to divorce, it is much more open than Christianity and Judaism. A woman can seek Khul’ and have arbitration for a divorce.

    Shit like this is local cultural practices that would happen regardless of the area being Islamic or not.

    • @HauntedCupcakeEnglish
      6•3 months ago

      Yes, but there are multiple references to cutting off hands/feet. It’s hardly setting a good example.

      We don’t try to excuse Christianity and their god awful abortion takes as local culture

      • SeaJEnglish
        2•3 months ago

        Oh don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of messed up shit in the Quran. It was written by a dude in the 600s. And while it may have been progressive then in comparison to Christianity, it is still pretty messed up by today’s standards. The views on punishment, slavery, and women fail pretty hard from today’s perspective. I am only saying with regards to divorce.

        Your abortion example is interesting because the only spot in the Bible that could related to abortion is actually supportive of it. It is prescribed for a possibly unfaithful woman.

        As far as things like this being cultural, you see similar shit with honor killings in backwards areas of India that are by Hindus.

        • @HauntedCupcakeEnglish
          4•3 months ago

          I think you’re taking it too literally, the books have many statements that are contradictory. It’s about the general message. In general, the bible is very pro-children, it has passages where God literally tells people he made them in the womb himself. And funnily enough, modern highly Christian nations have these ideals, and takes them to extremes.

          The Qur’an has a lot of violent punishment, which is then in a lot of cases moderated in modern Islamic countries. Saudi Arabia for example, may only cut off one hand for thievery, or none if the crime is light enough. It sets precedent and normalises these actions

        • Rikudou_SageEnglish
          1•3 months ago

          I know at least one other spot that mentions abortion in the Bible.