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A Pakistan court freed a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement brokered by a council of elders in the northwest of the country, his lawyer said Wednesday.
The decision has outraged rights activists, who say it legitimises sexual violence against women in a country where a majority of rape goes unreported.
Dawlat Khan, 25, was sentenced in May to life imprisonment by a lower court in Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for raping a deaf woman.
He was released from prison on Monday after the Peshawar High Court accepted an out-of-court settlement agreed by the rape survivor’s family.
Dalwat Khan was jailed for life for raping a female relative in Pakistan, but the sentence was quashed after he agreed to marry the woman who had a baby following the attack (picture features a protest against violence against women and girls in Karachi)
Speaking after his client was released, Khan’s lawyer Amjad Ali outlined the background to the deal: ‘The rapist and the victim are from the same extended family.
‘Both families have patched up after an agreement was reached with the help of local jirga (traditional council),’ he added.
Khan was arrested after his unmarried victim delivered a baby earlier this year, and a paternity test proved he was the child’s biological father.
Rape is notoriously difficult to prosecute in Pakistan, where women are often treated as second-class citizens….
In 2021, Pakistan introduced a law which would see repeat rapists chemically castrated, but within two days of the law passing, it was condemned by leading imams as ‘un-Islamic’.
The decision has outraged rights activists, who say it legitimises sexual violence against women in a country where a majority of rape goes unreported.
Dawlat Khan, 25, was sentenced in May to life imprisonment by a lower court in Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for raping a deaf woman.
He was released from prison on Monday after the Peshawar High Court accepted an out-of-court settlement agreed by the rape survivor’s family.
Dalwat Khan was jailed for life for raping a female relative in Pakistan, but the sentence was quashed after he agreed to marry the woman who had a baby following the attack (picture features a protest against violence against women and girls in Karachi)
Speaking after his client was released, Khan’s lawyer Amjad Ali outlined the background to the deal: ‘The rapist and the victim are from the same extended family.
‘Both families have patched up after an agreement was reached with the help of local jirga (traditional council),’ he added.
Khan was arrested after his unmarried victim delivered a baby earlier this year, and a paternity test proved he was the child’s biological father.
Rape is notoriously difficult to prosecute in Pakistan, where women are often treated as second-class citizens….
In 2021, Pakistan introduced a law which would see repeat rapists chemically castrated, but within two days of the law passing, it was condemned by leading imams as ‘un-Islamic’.