Feeding girls to predators!

June 2026 has proven to be a new low for Pakistan when it comes to the rape and murder of its girls

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The writer takes interest in social issues

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As I sit and write this op-ed on the pandemic of violence against women and girls in Pakistan, I wonder if my words will reach the right ears and actually make a difference. June 2026 has proven to be a new low for Pakistan when it comes to the rape and murder of its girls. It has turned into a nation that eats its children.

Let me recount just some of the cases from June 2026 to show you why I am disgusted, disillusioned and disappointed by the current state of affairs.

In Gujranwala, Punjab, a 16-year-old girl was nearly abducted while walking with her sisters. In Ghotki, Sindh, a teenage girl was gang-raped while working in a landlord's field alongside her parents, and the assault was filmed so the family could later be blackmailed into silence. In Karachi, the country's most advanced city, three-year-old Kulsoom was raped and murdered, her body delivered in a flour sack to her doorstep and discovered by her grandfather. In Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, an 18-year-old domestic worker died after months of severe torture and repeated rape at the hands of her employer's son and the family driver. In Sargodha, one of the fastest growing cities of the country, eight-year-old Muntaha – sent by her parents to buy a pack of cheese – was found raped and murdered on a shop rooftop.

It is self-evident, therefore, that Pakistan is a country where simply stepping out to buy basic groceries, walking with family elders, or playing in front of one's own doorstep can result in a woman or child being brutally raped, beaten and murdered.

Pakistan has signed a slew of international treaties, promising the world that it will protect its children from discrimination, prostitution and child pornography, armed conflict, torture, and the worst forms of child labour. And yet here we are in June 2026 – one of the most violent periods for children in Pakistan. International findings reaffirm Pakistan witnessing extreme violence against women, with Concern Worldwide ranking it the worst country for women's rights and the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2025 placing it last.

As reported in the media, Pakistan recorded 3,630 child abuse cases in 2025, with girls making up 52% of the victims. The reports claim an 8% rise from the previous year, underscoring that violence against children is worsening rather than receding.

It seems our authorities are completely detached, willfully ignoring the horrors unfolding across the country. Can they not see the depth of public rage? Citizens are so deeply exhausted and disgusted by institutional failures that they feel a grim satisfaction when reported rapists are killed in police encounters - even refusing to allow the burial of such criminals in neighborhood graveyards.

We are witnessing a nation go morally bankrupt. Our leaders need to take swift action on the cases shared in this piece, and the many others like these. We must stop feeding our children to predators; stop turning death sentences for paedophiles into life sentences; save the future we are working so hard to secure by first protecting the children who are supposed to inherit it.

This is not my first op-ed on the disgraceful state of affairs in Pakistan, and I fear it may not be my last. Because until this country decides that its women and girls are worth more than empty promises, the blood will keep flowing and the shame will keep deepening.

This country does not need more proof of its international relevance. It needs to stop failing its women and girls. It needs to stop feeding its girls to predators.

It was Nelson Mandela who once said, "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."

By that measure, Pakistan, your soul is rotting!