Case Summary
The applicant's husband lived in the United States beginning in 1982. During this separation, she lived alone with her two sons in Karachi. As a woman living alone, the applicant was subjected to progressively severe harassment, verbal and physical threats and physical abuse. Particularly following the election of Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minister in 1988, there was an increasingly hostile climate against women, with increasing acts of violence, terrorism, lawlessness and political turmoil. Much of this turmoil is directed at women, particularly those living alone without a male head of household. The instigators were generally conservative Shi'ite groups that wish to keep Pakistan a strict, Islamic state with subordinate roles for women. In the apartment building where the applicant lived, two other married women also lived alone, without their husband. All three women were routinely subjected to threats, accusations of infidelity, and were sexually propositioned by males living in the building. She was terrified by the accusations of infidelity, which could lead to criminal prosecution. Neighbors grew bolder over the years, verbally insulting and propositioning her in the halls. Excrement was smeared on her door; neighborhood children threw rocks at her. In September 1990, gunshots were fired into her apartment. The applicant lived in terror as the situation in Pakistan worsened in the early 1990s. In 1992, she obtained a visa to come to the U.S. The applicant was without recourse to the police to complain about her neighbors' abuse, as she feared that she would herself by arrested and investigated for making such a complaint, if not jailed and raped.
Date Submitted
Outcome for Case #63
