Stab victim Khadija Siddiqi: ‘My case is a fight for all Pakistani women’

The woman whose attempted murder by an ex-boyfriend became a cause celebre hopes her legal battle will inspire other women

A student who was stabbed 23 times in daylight in one of Pakistan’s busiest streets has accused the country’s justice system of misogyny after her attacker, having been found guilty of attempted murder, was sensationally acquitted last week.

Khadija Siddiqi was ambushed as she collected her six-year-old sister from school two years ago. She was repeatedly slashed across the throat and abdomen by fellow student Shah Hussain in an attack she said was motivated by revenge after she had spurned his advances. She escaped with her life only after her driver managed to drag Hussain off her. Her attacker was sentenced to seven years in prison – the minimum for attempted murder. But in an extraordinary turn, last week he was acquitted by the high court following claims by his lawyers that it had been Siddiqi who had pursued him, based on a letter she had written when she was 17, and that she had wanted the case to become “high profile”.

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