‘Gang-rape victim’, 18, who fell pregnant after ‘assault by her wealthy boss’s son and his driver’ dies during botched abortion in Pakistan
An 18-year-old girl who fell pregnant after being gang raped multiple times has died from complications linked to a botched abortion in a case that has shocked Pakistan.
Ayesha worked as a housemaid for a wealthy family in Lahore, and like thousands of young girls in the country, she had taken up the job to provide for her family.
But inside her employer’s home, court records show that the teenager lived a year-long nightmare of repeated abuses at the hands of her boss’s son and driver, who she accused of raping her several times.
Last November, after months of enduring abuse, the girl found out she was pregnant with the child of one of her alleged rapists.
But determined to protect the family name, her employers forced her to terminate the pregnancy, arranging for a private clinic to carry out the procedure illegally.
After undergoing the abortion, the teenager fell extremely ill, which resulted in her being admitted to the hospital several times.
As her condition continued to deteriorate, she returned to the hospital in Lahore one final time, where she eventually died last month.
Before her death, the young girl was able to give a statement to the police, revealing the abuse she suffered.
Ayesha, 18, who was five months pregnant, died from complications from an abortion after she was allegedly gang raped
The two men she accused of raping her, as well as her boss, are being investigated for gang rape and murder.
The driver has been remanded in custody, while the teenager’s employer and his son have been granted bail.
Police officers also said they were investigating staff at the private clinic where the girl underwent her abortion.
Ayesha died on May 26, but her case only came to light last week after a video she recorded from her hospital bed detailing the abuse she endured went viral on social media.
An initial police investigation revealed that Ayesha had claimed that she was gang raped by her employer’s son and driver on multiple occasions over the course of the year she worked there.
According to court records, Ayesha told her employer’s wife that she had stopped menstruating and was made to take a pregnancy test.
When the test came back positive, Ayesha claimed she was forced to take abortion pills, which made her extremely ill.
She returned to her hometown of Faisalabad to recover, but the teenager’s health only seemed to get worse and worse.
Her parents took her to a local clinic, where doctors confirmed she was still pregnant.
Ayesha’s family contacted her employers, who ordered them to bring the her back to Lahore.
It was there that Ayesha – who was five months pregnant at this point – was threatened by her employers and taken to get an operation, where it was discovered the baby in her womb was already dead, court records show.
Ayesha never recovered from the complications that followed and was admitted to the hospital several times in the month leading up to her death.
It was during that time that the teenager decided to record a video from her hospital bed, detailing the horror she had endured.
Speaking to BBC Urdu, Ayesha’s grief-stricken father said he was unaware of the repeated abuse his daughter had endured.
‘We were in contact with our daughter on the phone, and she never said anything at first that would have made us think she was being raped,’ he recalled.
Another Pakistani man, Shafqat Ali, gang-raped a French woman in front of her children in 2020. He was sentenced to death and a court has rejected his appeal
The second attacker, Abid Malhi, will also be hanged for gang rape, kidnapping, robbery and terrorism
Pakistani security officials stand guard at the trial of the two men in Lahore on March 20, 2021
‘When she came to Faisalabad and her health deteriorated, the doctor at the clinic told her that our daughter was pregnant. Hearing this, my legs trembled; it felt like the sky was about to fall on me.’
The case has sparked outrage in Pakistan, with several social media users demanding justice for Ayesha.
‘An 18-year-old domestic worker in Lahore was raped, ignored when she sought help and later died during an abortion. A horrific failure of humanity and accountability. Those responsible and those who looked away must face justice,’ a social media user wrote.
Another said: ‘A domestic worker named Aisha, just 18-19 years old, is gone. Not from illness. Not from accident. From systematic rape, forced abortion, torture, and death threats carried out by her own employer…Ayesha deserved protection. She deserved justice. She deserved to LIVE.’
Sexual violence against women is common in Pakistan, but it is underreported because of the stigma attached in the conservative country.
Many Pakistani women don’t report such incidents to avoid judgment in a society where rapists often escape justice because of flaws in the legal system and poor investigations by police.
Reports of Ayesha’s tragic ordeal come as Pakistanis last week celebrated after a Lahore court rejected the final appeals of Abid Malhi and Shafqat Ali.
The two men were behind a September 2020 attack in which they gang raped a French woman in front of her three children after the family became stranded on a motorway on the outskirts of Lahore.
They were sentenced to death in 2021, but both appealed their conviction, with the defence arguing that there were gaps in the prosecution’s version of events.
However, the court rejected their appeal last week, citing overwhelming evidence against the two men.
The decision felt like a monumental step forward for a justice system long criticised by activists in its handling of rape cases for its low conviction rates and frequent victim-blaming.
Malhi and Ali unleashed their attack on September 9, 2020, after the family’s car had run out of fuel, causing them to break down on the roadside.
She had locked the car doors while she waited for help, but the attackers broke a window and dragged her outside, where they raped her at gunpoint in front of her terrified children.
The men also stole money, jewellery, and bank cards before fleeing.
Protesters in Karachi, Pakistan, hold signs condemning violence against women and girls, following the horrific motorway rape
The judge arrives for the gang rape trial of Malhi and Ali, where they were later sentenced to death. The ruling felt like a monumental step forward for Pakistan’s justice system
Police said the woman was left traumatised, but she was able to provide them with some basic descriptions of her attackers.
They were tracked down via mobile phone data and arrested days after the incident.
DNA samples taken from the crime scene matched theirs.
The survivor identified the two men during a hearing, and Ali confessed to the crime before a magistrate.
An anti-terrorism court handled the 2021 trial for expediency.
The case drew widespread condemnation on social media, with some activists demanding that those involved be hanged in public.
It also led to mass protests across Pakistan, after a policeman questioned why the woman had been out late on her own the day after the attack.
Senior Lahore police official Umer Sheikh appeared in front of the media and implied the woman was partly to blame. He questioned why she had not taken a busier road, given that she was alone with her young children.
His remarks prompted a widespread reaction on social media, with Pakistanis calling him out for victim-blaming.
The decision to maintain the death penalty comes after human rights activists urged the government to introduce harsher penalties for rapists.
Although sexual abuse against Pakistani women is common, such crimes against foreigners are rare.
Many Pakistani women don’t report such incidents to avoid stigma in a society where rapists often escape justice because of flaws in the legal system and poor investigations by police.
Pakistan is among the world’s harshest users of the death penalty, according to legal action group Justice Project Pakistan.
The country carries out its executions at several locations, but all die by hanging.
