Pakistan shocked by grisly murder involving children from two elite families

A grisly murder in the heart of Islamabad involving families from the privileged elite of Pakistani society has dominated headlines for the past week, stirring national outrage over femicides in the South Asian nation.

Noor Mukadam, 27, the daughter of a former Pakistani diplomat, was found beheaded in a posh neighbourhood of the capital on July 20. Police have charged Zahir Jaffer, a US national and scion of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families, with murder.

Investigators say the two were friends, and Jaffer lured Mukadam, the daughter of Pakistan’s former envoy to South Korea, to his home, held her there for two days, and then brutally murdered her.

Hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan annually, and thousands more are victims of brutal violence, but few cases get sustained media attention, and only a small fraction of perpetrators are ever punished.

This killing though, which touched a segment of society that is often thought to be immune to that systemic injustice, has sparked a public outcry unlike any other recent case.

“The status of the families involved, especially the family of Zahir Jaffer, and of course Noor’s father being a former ambassador, and this happening within the elite circles of Islamabad … all of that combined definitely has brought more attention to this case,” commented Nida Kirmani, associate professor of Sociology at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.