Pakistani woman says husband beat her, shaved her head for dance refusal
A Pakistani woman is accusing her husband of beating her and shaving her head because she refused to dance for him and his friends at their home in an upscale neighborhood of Lahore.
The woman, Asma Aziz, appeared with a shaven head and a bruised face in a shocking, emotional video posted to Facebook on March 26, two days after she said the attack took place.
“He took my clothes off in front of his servants. The servants held me as he shaved my hair off and burned it. My clothes were bloody. I was bound by a pipe and hung from the fan. He threatened to hang me naked,” she said, according to the BBC.
The incident caused a furor on social media about women’s safety in Pakistan, because Aziz said in the video she went to police to file a complaint but they procrastinated, the outlet reported. Police denied that allegation to local media, stating they tried to investigate but couldn’t get into the home.
They arrested her husband of four years, Mian Faisal, and a servant, Rashid Ali, the day after the video was posted and came to the attention of Deputy Minister for Interior Sheheryar Afridi, who ordered officers to register a complaint.
Faisal denied torturing his wife and said she had started cutting her hair under the influence of drugs, and that he, having also taken drugs, only helped her finish the job.