Rape victim fights losing battle from all sides

Sonia Naz, the alleged rape victim, seems to have quite visibly shrunk. Clutching her "hijab" wrappings close to her, as she sits at "Dastak", the women's shelter in Lahore run by the activist sisters Hina Jilani and Asma Jehangir, she seems almost like a wizened old woman, far older than her 24 years.

After her valiant fight for the freedom of her husband, who had been jailed in a corruption case, Sonia today seems to have lost everything even though her husband is no longer in the clutches of the police.

Asim Younis, detained in a corruption case had apparently gone missing, with police refusing to produce him despite accepting bribes from his family.

In the meantime, as Sonia began her attempts to locate her husband, she was arrested for unlawfully entering parliament to meet the Prime Minister.

Subsequently, she was subjected to a brutal gang-rape by police officers, apparently as "punishment" for attempting to expose police corruption.

Today, public sympathy is largely with Sonia. The account of her brutal rape at the hands of senior police officers has shocked millions. But it seems all hopes of victory have been dashed.

Her struggle to resume an ordinary family life with Asim and their two small children, appears to have ended with his harsh divorce papers, stating he can no longer live with a woman so openly discussed in the national newspapers.

Reports suggest his family pressurised Asim to take his decision.