Justice Ali Baqar Najafi’s additional note in the Noor Muqaddam judgment – where he frames an unimaginably brutal murder as a warning against “vice” and “living relationships” – is unsettling not because it is surprising, but because it confirms what far too many Pakistanis, especially women, already fear: that even the justice system is not fully insulated from the misogynistic narratives that shape society.

A case that united the country in outrage, that exposed the complacency of the powerful and the vulnerability of women, is now being refracted through a moral lens that has nothing to do with the crime itself. Noor’s murder was not about “vice”. It was not about relationships. It was about a man who believed he could act with impunity and a society that routinely excuses or explains away violence against women. Suggesting otherwise diverts attention from the brutality of the perpetrator and redirects scrutiny onto women’s choices – a familiar and dangerous shift.

This mindset is not new. It is the same logic that justifies honour killings, downplays domestic abuse, and polices women’s clothing, friendships, and movements. It is a worldview in which a woman’s autonomy is treated as a provocation, and violence becomes an almost understandable reaction. And when this logic emerges in judicial commentary, the consequences are far from symbolic; they strike at the credibility of the justice system itself.

We have heard similar rhetoric from political leaders. Former prime ministers have implied that rape is a by-product of men being “not robots”, as if sexual violence is a natural impulse rather than a crime rooted in entitlement and power. Society still blames women who are attacked for walking alone, for working late, for the clothes they wear, or for the company they keep. Even married couples face harassment for holding hands in public.

In this environment, when a judge suggests that a woman’s personal choices carry moral weight in a criminal case, women watching know exactly what that........

© The Friday Times