Horror as ‘gang rape victim’, 18, dies during botched abortion after ‘attack by boss’ son'

Pakistan has been rocked after reports emerged that an 18-year-old girl had died from complications linked to a botched abortion after being gang raped multiple times. The teenager, known only as Ayesha, had been working as a housemaid for a wealthy family in Lahore to support her family.

However, inside her employer’s home, court records show that the teenager suffered 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. However, 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, Ayesha fell extremely ill, which resulted in her being admitted to the hospital several times. Her condition continued to deteriorate, forcing her to return to the hospital in Lahore, 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.

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 also said they were investigating the 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.

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 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 unborn baby 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 before her death.

“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,” Ayesha’s heartbroken father told BBC Urdu. “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.”

Since Ayesha’s social media post went viral, numerous Pakistanis have demanded justice. One 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 often goes underreported because of the stigma attached to it. Victims often face victim-blaming, social ostracisation and pressure to keep silent to protect the family’s honour. Several provinces have enacted specific legislation to protect women, including the Punjab Protection of Women against Violence Act and domestic violence prevention acts in Sindh and Balochistan.