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Domestic abuse is serious. It happens more often than you might think but most of the time, it’s never reported. The victim may be concerned about their kids. They may worry about their standing in society. There might be an anxiety about whether any action might actually be taken. However, when a victim takes that courageous step and reports the crime, the judiciary owes it to her to ensure justice is served.
Recently, Judge Richard Mansell QC decided not to award jail term to Pak cricketer Mustafa Bashir, 34, since the victim, his wife, Fakhara Karim, 33, did not seem to be ‘vulnerable’. The judge believed, she was,
“an intelligent woman with a network of friends”
and somehow, that did not qualify her to “fit into” the “mould” of a domestic abuse victim. Seriously?!
On one occasion, Mustafa Bashir assaulted his wife with his own cricket bat out of sheer jealousy and said,
“If I hit you with this bat with my full power then you would be dead.”
Not vulnerable enough, though, right? At least according to the judge.
On a separate occasion, the Pak cricketer held his wife by the neck, poured bleach down her throat, forced her to take tablets and kept ordering her to kill herself.
The #3owls opening bowler Mustafa Bashir bowls Townville's Hughes for 0 in the 120 run win in Sunday's CP Semi Final pic.twitter.com/P8NSwlKxcE
— Methley Cricket Club (@MethleyCC) September 2, 2015
But hey, she’s an intelligent woman with a network of friends, right?
After facing such abuse at the hands of her husband, Fakhara had become a mere shadow of her former self.
“Before I met Mustafa Bashir I was a confident, active and humorous person. After the abuse, my confidence was very low and I hid away from family and friends.”
Still does not qualify as vulnerable, though, does it?
Sandra Horley the chief executive of domestic abuse charity ‘Refuge’, was shocked to see the absolutely ridiculous misconceptions this judge had about a serious crime like domestic abuse.
“What a woman does for a job, her level of education or the number of friends she has makes no difference; for any woman, domestic violence is a devastating crime that has severe and long-lasting impacts.”
There still exist several misconceptions about domestic abuse victims like they only come from poor households. However, in reality, it happens at all strata of society irrespective of economic status.
It’s disgusting to belittle the abuse suffered by a victim by somehow being the authority on what qualifies as ‘vulnerable’. The ordeal that Fakhara went through was nothing short of hell. Her educational qualification, financial status or employment prospects do nothing to dampen the impact of the severe torture she faced at the hands of her abusive husband. If a judge at the Queens Court in a progressive nation like the UK fails to understand that, what does that tell us?
“Rather than perpetuating damaging myths, the judiciary must be better trained to understand domestic violence.”
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