was lying on the floor, almost unconscious. All I could hear were the cries of my children. It felt like the ground beneath my feet was shaking,” S* recounts.

She sits in a quiet corner; her empty eyes locked in a distant gaze. She recounts her story of suffering and abuse. Now, it is a fight for justice. “I tolerated abuse for twenty years during my marriage. He never cared about the consequences of his actions.”

Her quest for justice began two years ago when she first visited the Violence Against Women Centre in Multan. “At the time, I went back. I thought, no matter what, he was the father of my children. I decided to stay silent.”

After another two years of abuse and suffering, S returned to the centre. This time she was not just a wife seeking shelter but also a mother demanding justice. “I am here to seek justice for myself and my children, whose lives have been shattered by their father.”

S works as domestic help for six employers. “I have two daughters. I could not leave them alone at home with their father. This is why I had to consider marrying them off, to protect them.”

S’s physical and mental health have been deeply affected by years of abuse. She recalls the bitter experience of aborting a pregnancy. “I was forced to abort my child because my husband did not want it. He said that it was someone else’s child,” she says.

A report by the United Nations says that the deadliest place for some women is their own homes. In 2023, an estimated 51,100 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members. According to the Law and Justice Commission’s 2023 report, the number of cases of gender-based violence in Pakistan has increased with 48,395 new cases added to the backlog, which stood at 39,655 cases by the end of the year. This reflects a significant increase in the number of unresolved cases.

This year, Multan’s Violence Against Women Centre reported 2,000 cases. Of these cases, 935 were referred to the centre’s rehabilitation services, which focus on mental health recovery for women severely impacted by violence.

Nafisa Jabeen, the psychologist at the centre, says that a majority of women seeking help at the centre struggle with trauma and severe depression as a result of domestic violence. “Some women lose their ability to function normally,” she says. “It is not just the pain from abuse but also the emotional and psychological damage that often goes unnoticed.”

Twenty-seven-year-old U* walks slowly through the gallery of the centre, holding her young son’s hand. She was married for four years. For over a year now, U has been living with her parents. “I have a master’s degree. I tried my best to change the conditions at my home... I was pregnant when I endured violence. In the end, I moved to my mother’s house. There, I gave birth to my son.”

Jabeen says that gender-based violence is not just an issue of individual ‘weakness,’ but of societal structures that fail to empower women. “I am often surprised when educated women, supposedly placed well in society, struggle to stand up for themselves,” she says. “The reality is that many women, regardless of their education or social status, feel powerless in the face of abuse because our society doesn’t give them enough support to stand up for themselves,” she says.

Hailing from a small village in the outskirts of Multan, F* works tirelessly in the fields. For eleven years, she has lived under the constant shadow of domestic abuse that began on the very first day of her marriage. She says she has reconciled with her husband out of necessity. “My pain is unbearable. I have a deep wound in my head. I took this decision for the sake of my children,” she says. “There was no other reason.”

“Is a woman considered ‘good’ if she endures the abuse and violence, and remains silent?” She recalls that when she first left her house, wounded, she was blamed for her ‘failure’ to keep her marriage intact.

“Her story is not unique. Sadly, it represents the lived reality of countless women who suffer in silence, enduring violence in the name of family or tradition,” says Jabeen. She highlights the need for a change in mindset. “In many cases, women are not in a position to make decisions for themselves. Their fathers, brothers or husbands make the decisions on their behalf,” she says.

“We work with the police and welfare institutions to ensure the protection of these women and help them get justice. We do not make any decisions for them, without their consent.”

*Names have been withheld to protect identities

The writer is a freelance multimedia journalist in Multan