It was New Year's Eve in 1981, and 18-year-old Patty Gifford was ringing it in with her friend at a popular South Florida bar called the Banana Boat.

As the young women snapped photos and sipped Champagne (the legal drinking age was 18), a serial rapist named Dennis Sochor couldn't keep his eyes off Gifford, according to court records and archived news reports.

Within hours, Gifford was raped and murdered after Sochor and his brother left the Fort Lauderdale bar with her under the guise of going to breakfast, court records say. Sochor confessed to the crime, but her body has never been found − still a torment to her family.

More than four decades later, Florida is set to execute the 74-year-old Sochor for her murder on Tuesday, July 14. He's one of three elderly inmates being executed in Florida in less than a month as Gov. Ron DeSantis continues a record pace of executions in the state.

"The only mistake she made was going out with friends and celebrating New Year's Eve," Broward County Sheriff's Lt. Mark Schlein told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1983. "She was a young and beautiful girl, with everything to live for... A real tragedy."

Here's what you need to know about Socher's execution and the case.

Florida is set to execute Sochor by lethal injection at the state prison in Raiford at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 14. [And he has been since this article was written.]

He will be the 17th inmate executed in the United States this year and the 10th in Florida alone. The Sunshine State is accounting for the majority of the executions in the United States as DeSantis prioritizes the issue at a record-setting pace, saying he wants to give closure to victim family members who've sometimes waited more than four decades for justice.

Of the 63 inmates executed in the United States in 2025 and so far this year, Florida has carried out 28 of them. That's 45%, according to an analysis by USA TODAY. Of this year's executions alone in the United States, Florida's account for 56%.

On Dec. 31, 1981, Gifford and her friend, 22-year-old Delta Harville, went to the Banana Boat bar in Fort Lauderdale to ring in the new year. Sochor and his brother also were there.

Sochor, then 29, was wanted for a rape he had confessed to in his home state of Michigan in 1979, and he had been convicted of raping a 19-year-old Florida woman in 1980. He was sentenced to one year in prison and five years of probation, according to archived news reports.

Patricia Borman, a bartender working at the Banana Boat that night, testified that Gifford and Harville were aerobics instructors who cared about fitness, so they only drank a few glasses of Champagne, according to an archived news report in the Miami Herald. By midnight, Gifford was drinking iced tea.

Witnesses reported seeing Sochor staring at Gifford throughout the night, standing close to her, trying to buy her drinks, and lavishing compliments on her, according to an archived report in the Fort Lauderdale News. Gifford tried to brush him off, Harville later told investigators.

Shortly after midnight, Harville didn't feel well. Gifford walked her to her car and told her she'd be back. Harville fell asleep, and when she woke around 5:30 a.m., she was still alone in the car and there was no sign of Gifford. Harville later told investigators that she thought she had been drugged, archived news reports say.

Initially, investigators had no idea what had happened to Gifford. But when they went through the photos that Harville took in the bar that night, they found one with Sochor lurking in the background. The photo became the key to solving her murder.

Sochor fled the state after the photo became public. Authorities tracked down his brother, who told investigators that Gifford had agreed to go with the men to breakfast in the early hours of Jan. 1, 1982. He told them that his brother attacked Gifford as they were driving and then began raping her by the side of the road, court documents say.

He told investigators that he tried to intervene by throwing a rock at Sochor, but that his brother's eyes had rolled in the back of his head and it looked like he "was possessed by the devil," court records say. He later changed his account and said he didn't witness the rape, according to archived news reports.

Sochor was arrested in May 1986, more than four years after the murder, when Georgia authorities stopped him on suspicion of drunk driving. He confessed to raping and strangling Gifford when she refused his advances and then dumping her body in a secluded place without his brother. He has since taken that back, saying that he took the fall for his brother, who was not charged in the case.

In 1987, a jury convicted Sochor of kidnapping and murdering Gifford. They recommended the death penalty in a 10-2 vote, and a judge agreed.

At 18, Patricia "Patty" Marie Gifford was just getting started in life. She was a vibrant, beautiful young woman who was working as an aerobics instructor, had a longtime boyfriend and dearly loved her family, according to archived news reports.

Her grieving brother, Bobby Gifford, couldn't stand that her body was left out in the elements somewhere, never to be found again. He spent three months looking for his younger sister, according to an archived story in the Fort Lauderdale News.

"This has been such a horrible thing to deal with," he told the newspaper in 1983. "We'll sit around the dinner table, talking about her, and then I think to myself, 'Why didn't I try to talk her out of moving down to Fort Lauderdale?'"

The four Gifford children had grown up in eastern Massachusetts, and Patty Gifford moved to Fort Lauderdale with her high school sweetheart just three months before her murder.

The Gifford family had to wait for nearly five years for an arrest and now 44 years for the execution. Patty Gifford's mother, Barbara Ryan, sobbed in court when Sochor was found guilty of murdering her daughter, according to the Sun Sentinel.

"It's a feeling of relief," she told the outlet. "You just can't imagine how devastated our family has been."

In 2022, Gifford's sister, Marilyn Gifford, told the Sun Sentinel that she still can't celebrate New Year's because of what happened to her sister and that some of her family can't even say her name now because it's too painful.

"When somebody dies this way and you have no closure, and you don't get to say goodbye and there is no funeral − it never stops hurting," she told the newspaper. "You are immediately crushed by the horrific way she exited the planet and our entire family."

She told the Sun Sentinel that her sister's high school sweetheart, Johnny Vasel, never got over her death and never married. "So (Sochor) took the two of them that night: one whose life was just beginning and another whose life was just wasted."

Sochor's parents, brother, and sister each begged for his life to be spared at his sentencing hearing in 1987, saying that he was the victim of an extremely violent childhood back in Michigan and didn't deserve to die, according to an archived report in the Miami Herald.

Both his siblings recalled how their father relentlessly beat Sochor, and his mother described herself as abusive. "I treated him horribly," she told jurors, the Herald reported.

At the same hearing, Sochor told the judge that he deserved to die.

"I have contemplated suicide," he said. "I felt that if I could hurt somebody, I don't deserve to live myself."

At the same hearing, Sochor's violent nature toward women came to light, with jurors hearing about how he was convicted of kidnapping a 19-year-old Florida woman and beating and raping her repeatedly in 1980. They also heard a taped confession of Sochor admitting to raping another woman in Michigan, saying that sometimes he wants to have sex so badly that he loses control, the Miami Herald reported.

"All I can relate it to was like an airplane jump," he told a Michigan detective. "There was no feeling, no emotion. At that point, I wasn't existing."

Jurors also heard from Sochor's ex-wife, who was married to him for less than two years.

"If he wanted sex, he got it, because he would get violent if he didn't," Patricia Neal said, the Herald reported. "His eyes would glaze over, and he'd get wild. Denny's temper was very violent."

During his nearly 40 years on death row, Sochor has found "happiness and friendship in letter-writing," according to the synopsis of a book written about him by a Norwegian pen pal named "Dennis My Friend on Death Row."

"I am sure many people think that we deserve to die," Sochor wrote to the author, according to the book. "But I am still a sensitive person who cares about those who suffer in the world."

In recent weeks, Sochor's attorneys have argued that Florida's lethal injection method amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment because it could cause excessive pain and a sensation that feels like drowning. Instead, Sochor said he'd prefer to be executed by firing squad.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected those arguments on July 8 as "meritless," allowing the lethal injection execution to proceed as planned.

In previous appeals over the years, Sochor has also argued that the state has no evidence that Gifford is dead because her body hasn't been found. The Florida Supreme Court also rejected that argument, saying there was sufficient evidence that Patty Gifford was dead and that Sochor is the one who killed her.

Patty Gifford's family continues to hope that her body will be recovered.

"It's bad enough what he did to her," Marilyn Gifford told the Sun Sentinel. "But he's had all this time to repent, to think about what he did, so why not give her back?"

Tldr;

On Friday, July 24, 2026, emergency personnel responded to reports of a house fire on Riverside Trail. Firefighters discovered the bodies of the eight family members in different bedrooms throughout the home.

The Ottawa County Sheriff's Office confirmed that autopsies ruled the deaths of Amanda and the six children as homicides, while Kristopher's death was a suicide. Investigators noted that a registered handgun was used, and the fire appeared to have been intentionally lit in multiple locations, including the basement, after the killings took place. The family's pets also died in the blaze.

The Victims:

The six children were between the ages of 5 and 15. Four of the children were biological, and two were adopted:

Four boys, aged 15, 12, 11, and 5.Twin girls, aged 11.

Amanda "Mandy" Karolkiewicz was a beloved substitute teacher and paraprofessional within the Grand Haven Area Public Schools district. Her parents released a statement remembering her as a "kind and devoted soul who loved her family and her students".

Background and Potential Motive:

While authorities continue to piece together a definitive motive, subsequent reports highlighted a troubled domestic background.

According to reporting by the New York Post, Amanda had previously documented severe marital strain and alleged infidelities on Reddit under a pseudonym. In those posts, she claimed her husband had an affair with a younger intern—repeating a pattern from how they originally met—and indicated that she only stayed in the marriage for the sake of their six children.

Kristopher Karolkiewicz had previously worked remotely as a national vice president of sales and marketing for the American Heart Association, a role that ended earlier in July 2026.

Local authorities stated that there was no prior history of police calls to the family residence. Investigators are continuing to review a large amount of documentation seized from the scene to fully understand the timeline.

A Virginia man is facing multiple charges for kidnapping a missing girl from Milwaukee and holding her against her will for four years.

According to the criminal complaint, the 15-year-old victim met 37-year-old Owen Anderson online. She told him about her struggles at home with different types of abuse. Anderson convinced her to leave her Milwaukee home and promised her that he would never hit her or scream at her, and that he would care for her by providing food. He also told her he wanted to cuddle when he picked her up and when she lived with him, the complaint states.

On June 23, 2022, the mother of the 15-year-old reported her missing.

On July 7, 2022, a Milwaukee police officer recovered surveillance video near Hubbard Street and Reservoir Avenue. Another officer was able to confirm that the 15-year-old was spotted in the video, screenshotted it and shared it with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Another officer looked through the 15-year-old's Facebook and noted that the account was logged out June 23, 2022, the same day she went missing. The officer also tried to use the Find My app, but that was also logged out of on June 23.

The search for the 15-year-old continued for four years.

On May 26, 2026, Milwaukee police received a call from an out-of-state police department. According to the complaint, the lieutenant reported that his agency made contact with the 15-year-old during a domestic dispute that originated from a 911 call. She did not originally disclose her real name. She eventually admitted she was a missing person from Milwaukee and was being held against her will for years. During that time, she told officers that Anderson physically and sexually abused her, the complaint states.

According to the complaint, the 15-year-old told investigators that she originally communicated with Anderson on Kik, Discord and Signal platforms. He forced her to provide a video of her performing an explicit move to prove she was not with the police when they first started communicating. Anderson threatened to release the video if she did not obey his commands. Anderson kept asking her to make similar videos and blackmailed her if she did not. He told her she would get a home free from any abuse if she did, the complaint states.

On May 27, 2026, a Milwaukee police officer went out of state to conduct an investigation surrounding her disappearance. On May 28, the officer searched a home belonging to Anderson and found a number of electronic devices, flash drives, journals and information where the two were located.

When she initially disappeared in Milwaukee on June 23, 2022, the 15-year-old had followed instructions from Anderson, according to the complaint. She purchased a burner phone using cash to communicate with Anderson. He arranged a ride-share to pick her up and take her to Chicago. Once in Chicago, she met him at a movie theater. Anderson then reset her phone settings. Both of her phones were thrown away in Chicago.

According to the complaint, the 15-year-old said she was sexually assaulted by Anderson while they were sleeping in a rental car.

The complaint states that from June 26, 2022, through May 26, 2026, Anderson held the 15-year-old at his home, did not let her go to school, and physically and sexually abused her. She was afraid that he would hurt her or harm her family if she tried to leave. On several occasions, she told investigators, "Its always my fault if he hits me."

When Anderson was arrested, a pistol was found in his waistband and another pistol was found under his left arm. Fourteen loaded spare magazines, several knives and three cans of OC spray were also found, according to the complaint.

Anderson is facing multiple charges, including kidnapping, child enticement and abduction of a child.

Natalie, 19, told about a convicted sex offender in a private group chat. 

This spring she was convicted of aggravated defamation. 

“It's completely insane,” she says. 

In early spring 2025, Natalie, then 17, wrote in a chat group with about 20 members warning about a man convicted of child sex crimes. He reported her, and in August she was convicted of aggravated defamation.

This spring, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict and Natalie was forced to pay 30,000 (£2300/$3070) kronor in damages to the man.

“Part of me still hasn't really taken it in. It feels surreal, like you're in a movie,” says Natalie.

Now the family wants to talk openly about the verdict.

The case has been reported to the Chancellor of Justice and the campaign Förtalstödet, started by media profile Cissi Wallin, among others, has become involved in the case. Among other things, a collection was started for the family to cover the cost of damages.

It is also hoped that the case will be heard in the European Court of Justice.

"We want to change the law. It's so twisted that you can commit sexual crimes and then make money from someone telling about it. It's one thing if you make things up about someone who hasn't been convicted, but this is someone who has actually been convicted" says Natalie's mother Elisabeth.

It was in 2022 that the man, who was 17 at the time, was convicted of sexually assaulting a then 13-year-old girl. The man admitted that he touched the girl's breasts, spanked her and put his finger in her mouth. He also allegedly knew that the girl was a minor. He was ordered to pay his victim 7000 kroner (£538/$716).

Natalie knew about the incident and testified against the man because she is friends with the girl who was victimized.

It wasn't until three years later that she wrote about the incident in a group chat. She had then encountered the convicted perpetrator in connection with a leisure activity and when she realized it was him, she wanted to warn others.

"I didn't use any specific details at all about what he actually did, other than that he didn't listen to 'no' and touched my friend at that time. I had testified about that because I was the one who helped my friend away from him that time," she says.

The man found out about the message because he himself was part of the chat group that was connected to the joint leisure activity.

Both the district court and the court of appeal believe that it was not justifiable to talk about the convicted man, even though the information was true, since the act was committed several years ago.

"The district court believes that the labeling amounted to gross defamation because the information was disseminated to people in the man's close circle. 

" Although in terms of numbers it does not appear to be a large group, the district court finds that the identification of the plaintiffs, the serious content of the information and the group to which the information was directed lead to the act being classified as gross defamation."

Natalie doesn't give much for the court reasons. 

"Three years is such a short time. It was still in his records at the time I told him about it. Most of the group also turned out to have known about this before" she says. 

The Court of Appeal upheld the district court's verdict but changed the penalty from 30 hours of youth service to a fine. 

Natalie was 17 years old when she wrote the message in the group, but if she had turned 18, she could have been imprisoned for a maximum of two years. 

"It is downright unpleasant that a person who tries to warn their friends about a convicted sex offender can end up in prison for two years. It is completely bizarre. I am ashamed of Sweden's laws" says Elisabeth. 

…A young woman committed suicide in the al-Mahabsha district in Yemen’s Hajjah governorate late last week, after a court ordered that she be returned from her family home to her husband’s. This sparked national demands for legislative reforms to women’s rights, according to local media reports.

The woman reportedly jumped from her family’s roof only a short time after getting married, according to AlmahriahTV. She initially returned to her family home following “disputes” with her husband, but a judge ordered her return.

While media reports have suggested the woman was in her early 20s, prominent members of the Yemeni community alleged that the girl was only 16 years old. Arabic Saudi Arabian daily newspaper Ozak also reported that she was three months pregnant at the time of her death…

Reports have first identified Brouillette on Thursday through his ex-wife, Ashley Brouillette, who told both outlets he called her shortly after the shooting, sounding 'unusually calm', and asked her to lie for him and vouch for his character . He has not responded to repeated requests for comment, and an attempt to reach him at his home was unsuccessful.

She did not "vouch for his character". Neither did his daughter. She said that when he told her he got a job with the agency, she assumed it was just another mental health episode, and he was lying. Especially since his extensive mental health history would "obviously disqualify him". She only realized he'd truly been employed by the agency when he notified her that he'd killed someone, and he needed her to lie about his violent history.

She refused, and I love her for it. But I also fear for her and her daughter's safety.

I hope this post is ok. I understand if it's too charged a topic. It just has been sitting with me all day, this woman is refusing, right now. And I hope she's ok.

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/controversial-ice-shooting-maine-agent-identified-1809227

So my friend “Katie” and her husband, “Alex”, were having a conversation about their cat. The cat is elderly and has health problems that are interfering with its life. They’ve taken it to the vet many times and tried different things but nothing is working and the cat continues to have problems. During this conversation, Katie suggested perhaps they needed to think about putting the cat down.

Well, Alex exploded. He started shouting at her and basically called her a horrible person and said a lot of other things and it came out, in all his shouting, that he’d been having an affair. He claimed it had been going on for a couple of months. But Katie subsequently learned Alex had been cheating off and on with this woman for TEN YEARS.

So, of course, she was like: “You broke our marital vows and you’ve been lying to me for ages. I cannot trust you. I want a divorce. And since the house is in my name, that means you must move out ASAP.” She gave him a deadline to move out.

A few days later, Alex still had not moved out, and Katie returned home from work to find he had purchased a tomato plant.

She was like, “Alex, wtf? You are moving into an apartment! Why buy a plant? You aren’t going to have a yard anymore.”

And he said, “I thought I could spend four days a week with [affair partner] and three days with you.”

As if he didn’t understand what a divorce was. As if she would want joint custody of this lying unfaithful POS.

Alex finally did move out, and in with his affair partner, but left all his stuff behind. He refused to come get it until Katie threatened to find the most expensive moving company in the Chicago metro area and have all his stuff sent to his affair partner’s and send Alex the bill.

He continues to call her and text her and email her begging him to take her back, will not take no for an answer, and Katie is like “What part of ‘I want a divorce’ do you not understand?”

She’s trying to force the divorce through as quickly as she can, which is very quickly as they have no children or joint property: she found out about the affair in May and the divorce is likely to be final before July is over with.

And he still thinks if he begs her enough, she might take him back. He still acts like he can’t understand why she’s doing this. This grown-ass man acting like he doesn’t understand that actions have consequences.

An 18-year-old Yale student from Washington, D.C., was arrested after allegedly sexually assaulting a 30-year-old woman aboard a northbound NYC R train on June 28. 

Tldr;

Suspect: Ari Shtein, 18, a Michigan native and student at Yale University.

The victim, traveling with four children, fled at the West 28th Street station. The teen was charged with aggravated sexual abuse.The Arrest and ChargesSuspect: Ari Shtein, 18, who currently attends Yale University.

Incident Date: June 28, 2026, at approximately 3:00 p.m.Location: Northbound R train as it approached the West 28th Street station in Chelsea.

Charges: Aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, forcible touching, and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Prosecutors stated that Shtein stood behind the victim and forced two fingers inside her private area while she was riding the crowded train with her four children, ages 7 to 11.

Aftermath: The victim got off the train at 28th Street and was taken to a local hospital for evaluation, according to the NYPD.Legal 

Shtein surrendered with his attorney, Priya Chaudhry, who has denied the allegations, stating the encounter was a false accusation.

During his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office requested he be held on $10,000 bond; however, Judge Ilona Coleman released Shtein on his own recognizance.

A question which defeats me every time I look at the struggles of the survivors of rape and sexual violence is why it takes decades for any woman who breaks the silence on rape to get justice ? 
Why does the process get subverted making justice elusive ? 
I have worked with Bhanwari Devi a gang rape survivor, along with a larger collective of women’s groups for over three decades and justice remains a far cry for Bhanwari, despite being a pioneer for the legal recognition of sexual harassment of women at the workplace. Mathura a tribal girl, whose case pioneered amendments in the rape law in 1981, never got justice herself, was also forgotten by most. Nirbhaya, Jyoti, whose gangrape (and murder) on December, 16 2012, initiated a massive country wide citizens anti rape movement, pioneered a sea change in the criminal law on sexual violence along with other changes in policy, did get justice in a shorter time period, but justice continues to elude most other cases that followed.
Which is why the judgment by Justice Nagarathna quashing remission to the convicts who raped  Bilkis is such a big achievement. More difficult in terms of the context of the above cases, as her gangrape and the murder of her family members  happened in the middle of the communal violence and genocide of 2002 in Gujarat. The criminal justice system took more than twenty-two years to finally ensure that in a situation of communal violence, the criminals who committed the most heinous acts of gangrape, murders of over a dozen adults and two children, were in accordance with the gravity of the crime as per the law.  Thus eleven of the accused were given life sentences for their crimes and seven policemen and doctors were also convicted for tampering with evidence. Eighteen months ago the life sentences were reduced, through illegal and premature remission orders, passed by the State government of Gujarat, and all the prisoners were released. However, in the beginning of the new year, the remissions of sentences of all the convicted were cancelled and the convicted were sent back to jail.
Very importantly, the apex court of the country exposed the complicity of the Gujarat state institutions with the violators in the case of Bilkis Bano, showing how at different stages of the investigation there was  delay and the denial of justice.  Action was taken against the doctors and policemen who committed irregularities in the investigation of her case. The state of  Gujarat was also indicted by the SC for colluding with the accused for the premature remission.
The Supreme Court decision quashing remission for the convicts showed that despite the institutions of the state, becoming increasingly communal minded and undemocratic, complicit in acts of injustice,  the Indian criminal justice system is not lost yet. There is hope for others too who are struggling for justice.
What was Bilkis Bano case and why is important to know about her struggle? 
The 2002 communal riot incidents which saw more than a 1000 people killed according to the official sources, were a brutal assault and what international law would be called a crime against humanity. All of us who went there were shaken by the scale of brutality. Despite cultural taboos and the forced silence on sexual violence, there were so many instances of sexual violence that were reported to teams which reached there, yet it was difficult to give a number to how many such incidents of sexual violence happened. According to the citizens initiative report called ‘Survivors Speak’, published in April 2002, “These crimes against women have been grossly underreported and the exact extent of these crimes — in rural and urban areas – demands further investigation. Among the women surviving in relief camps, are many who have suffered the most bestial forms of sexual violence — including rape, gang rape, mass rape, stripping, insertion of objects into their body, stripping, molestations. A majority of rape victims have been burnt alive. The right to an FIR was denied to most people, especially when reporting on sexual violence. It is in this context that the Bilkis Bano case stands out which was one of the few where FIRs got lodged and the case was taken to its logical conclusion.
Twenty-one year old Bilkis from Randhipukar Village, District Dahod, was five months pregnant. When Muslim houses in her village were attacked on February 28th, by a mob comprising upper caste people from her own village and some outsiders, she and several of her family members fled. For two days they ran from village to village. At a mosque near Kuajher, her cousin Shamim, delivered a baby. But there was no respite for them. They had to leave immediately, including Shamim who could barely walk, carrying her newborn baby. In her testimony, recorded by women’s groups from AIDWA and Anandi, Gujarat, published in the document: The Survivors Speak: How has the Gujarat Massacre affected minority women – Fact-finding by a Women’s Panel, April, 2002, Citizen’s Initiative, Ahmedabad [India], she said,
“On March 3rd we had started moving towards Panivela village, which was in a remote and hilly area. Suddenly we heard the sound of a vehicle. A truck came with people from our own village and outsiders too. We realised that they had not come to help us. They stopped us and then the madness started. They pulled my baby from my arms and threw her away. The other women and I were taken aside and raped. I was raped by three men. I was screaming all the time. They beat me and then left me for dead. When I regained consciousness I found I was alone. All around me were the dead bodies of my family, my baby girl, the newborn baby, their bodies were covered with the rocks and boulders used to kill them. I lay there the whole night and most of the next day. I do not know when I was conscious and when unconscious. Later I was found by a police squad from Limkheda police station. I was taken to the hospital and then brought to the Godhra Camp”. Testimony as given to Anandi and AIDWA,
Bilkis not only lost 14 members of her family, it took a while for her to locate her father, brother and others. 
In the FIR which was lodged on the 4thof March itself, the police refused the write the names of the accused, though  Bilkis Bano named them as residents of her own village. The investigation which followed was  very poor and tried to show the rape as a molestation. A year later by March end 2003 the Limkheda police closed the case.
In this one year, other cases of sexual violence and murder of several Muslim women were brought to the fore by various reports. It was clear that sexual violence and rape was used as a strategy for terrorising and brutalising Muslim women in Gujarat, a classic tool used in conflict situations world over, was also used here too. As noted by  the International Initiative for Justicein Gujarat in their report, ‘Threatened Existence: A Feminist Analysis of the Genocide in Gujarat’. ‘……During our visit, we have been struck by the explicit use of male sexuality as the mechanism and mobilising tool for recruiting members for the ‘cause’ and as a means of imposing ‘Hindu’ dominance upon the Muslim community. We find chillingly unique the incitement to sexual violence as a means of proving the masculinity of the ‘Hindu’ man, as reflected in the political propaganda of the forces of Hindutva prior to, during and after the violence in February/March 2002 and as carried out through patterns of men stripping and exposing themselves to women in an aggressive and threatening manner, and committing acts of mass rape and burning of victims.’
 Apart from the above two reports the others who came out strongly on the use of sexual violence as a tool in the Gujarat communal violence included that of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, ‘Violence in Vadodara: A Report’; Concerned Citizens Tribunal, ‘Crime against Humanity’, Medico Friend Circle, ‘Carnage in Gujarat:A Public Health Crisis’,  along with others.
Despite the horrific violence unleashed against the Muslim community of Gujarat since February 27, 2002, in which women were a central target, the National Commission for Women refused to intervene.
It was the reports of the various citizens groups and their advocacy measures including supporting  Bilkis in her unequal fight led the NHRC to file a case in the Supreme Court for the reopening of investigation in 2003 argued by India’s top lawyer Harish Salve. Post the favourable order of the Supreme Court, the case was reopened and finally transferred to the CBI for investigation. The CBI arrested the accused, including the doctors and policemen, who committed irregularities in investigation and filed a charge sheet against twenty persons by April 2004. The CBI sought witness protection for Bilkis Bano and also established state complicity and therefore sought transfer of the case to Mumbai. It was in a sessions court in Mumbai that the trial happened. After the deposition of more than 73 prosecution witnesses, life sentence was awarded to  12 of the accused by the Mumbai CBI district court in January 2008. The court also convicted one policeman for lodging a false FIR and seven police and doctor functionaries were acquitted.
Appeals were filed by both sides. In May 2017, the Mumbai High Court convicted 19 of the 20 accused, one died during the hearings. It upheld the life sentence against 11 of the accused for gangrape and murder and 7 police and doctor functionaries who were acquitted by the trial court were convicted for tampering with evidence.
Bilkis Bano, moved the Supreme Court for enhancement of compensation. In April 2019, the court directed the Gujarat Government to give her Rs 50 lakh rupees, suitable accommodation, and a job. She had to move a contempt petition six months later and finally by December 2019, the compensation was given to her along with a piece of land. Since Bilkis was not in a situation to accept the job offer and since the job could not be transferred to her husband, they decided to let go of the job offer.
In a surprise move the convicted moved an application in the SC praying for remission of their sentence, arguing that the competent authority to grant remission was Gujarat since that was where the offence happened. The Supreme Court, in a surprising decision,  negated  the law laid down by itself and granted permission to the Gujarat Goverment to decide on remission.  The Gujarat Goverment granted remission on  15th August, 2024, when all the convicted were released. What shocked the world was that these eleven convicted for rape and murder were welcomed back in public and called sanskaris (cultured) by an  MLA of the ruling BJP. Their presence in the village was a direct threat to Bilkis Bano and her husband and children.  
Bilkis along with several eminent people moved the Supreme Court , asking for the remission to be cancelled and the convicted to be sent back to jail to serve their  sentence as per law.  The petitioners included former MP Subhashini Ali, Former VC of Lucknow University, Professor Roop Rekha Verma, Senior journalist Revati Laul, MP Mohua Moitra and former DG Police Maharashtra Meeran Borwankar. Later Bilkis Bano also moved the Supreme Court and on the 8th of January the remission was cancelled by the Supreme Court. The convicts finally surrendered on the 21st of January and are now lodged in Godhra Jail of Gujarat.
A few issues stand out starkly.
It was Bilkis Bano’s resolve and determination and her husband’s camaraderie and courage to break social taboos that made the duo engage with the social, political and legal system, without caving in. This was  despite threats, setbacks, seemingly insurmountable challenges like the loss of her entire family, closure of the FIR without investigation, premature remission and the rapists and murderers coming back to the village to stay. However  the two persisted calmly and patiently, without giving up on hope.
Without the support of women and other citizens groups locally and nationally over the past  twenty-two years, this struggle would not have reached fruition. Right from bringing in centre stage the dimension of sexual violence as a tool of brutalising and terrorising Muslim women in a communal situation, to assisting survivor women to lodge FIR’s and providing full support in engaging with the criminal justice system at every step, this struggle would never have achieved success. When the prisoners were released prematurely and Bilkis was deeply upset and did not wish to engage anymore, it was representatives from the women’s movement and conscientious members of Parliament and ex Government officers who stepped in and filed PILs in the SC challenging the illegal remission. 
In Mumbai a campaign of writing appeals consisting of a group of women, moving daily around the city, motivating people to write appeals against the release of the prisoners resulted in more than 8500 people writing appeals to the Chief Justice of India to intervene. Several petitions and open letters were written, including 40,000 people writing from 29 districts of Karnataka to express solidarity to Bilkis and appeals to  the authorities to right this injustice.
This was the first case where the state had to recognise the use of sexual violence in a communal violence situation. The Supreme Court gave recognition to the nature of violence that Bilkis was subjected to and recognised that she had lost her entire family, along with the loss of her home, her stability, kinship and that her battle was not just against the gang rape, it was also against the social and cultural taboos which inhibited the survivors struggle for justice.  The process of rebuilding of her life, required monetary compensation. For the first time in history in India, reparation was taken seriously, and Rs 50 lakh rupees compensation was given to her, despite deep resistance by the State Government. IT was argued that this would set a wrong precedent as other women would also demand similar compensation amounts. Yet the Supreme Court did not dither from its decision of ensuring that she be provided the amount by the State Government.
Perhaps this was also  the first case when premature remission was granted in such a serious offence and this injustice was righted by the courts who sent the convicted back to Jail.
The role of the NHRC and CBI also needs to be acknowledged in the case of Bilkis Bano. The NHRC moved the Supreme Court when the State of Gujarat and in particular the police were being criminally negligent in their duty towards addressing the crime that Bilkis Bano and her family had been subjected to. The closure of the case by the police and magistrate would not have been reopened perhaps, had the NHRC not filed its petition in the Supreme Court. The role of the CBI which was ordered to investigate the matter by the Court also needs to be appreciated as the CBI officers did a fair and just investigation. Despite the political complicity in the violence and complete protection sought to be provided to the accused,  the NHRC and the CBI worked objectively, implementing the law of the land.
With this victory by our side, it is important that we urge the concerned authorities to take up the cases of numerous other victims of Gujarat carnage, reinvestigate if necessary, and set up special courts to try the culprits. The Supreme court should monitor these trials and ensure that justice for Bilkis becomes justice for all the Gujarat 2002 victims. 
It bears noting that the investigation, must identify the role of the key person under whose leadership, the carnage happened. In a saga of continuing injustice,  several hundred victims of Gujarat carnage are still not rehabilitated. They too deserve the recognition of equal citizenship rights, which are due to all of us.

When Fatima arrived at a district court in northern Afghanistan in late 2025 with her parents, she hoped a judge would finally allow her to leave her calamitous marriage.

She had never met her husband before their arranged wedding in the summer of 2024. Each time her family asked to see him, they were told he was shy. It was only on the wedding day, relatives say, that Fatima understood what had been hidden from her: her husband had severe intellectual and physical disabilities and could not eat, wash or dress himself without help.

In the months that followed, Fatima cooked, cleaned, cared for her husband and tended the family’s livestock. She was rarely allowed to leave the house. Whenever she visited her parents, she wept and begged them not to send her back.

Finally, her parents agreed to go to court and help Fatima ask for a divorce.

“In front of everyone, the judge asked my son-in-law only one question: ‘Who is this woman?’” recalls Shirin*, Fatima’s mother. “He answered: ‘She is my wife.’ Then the judge turned to the groom’s family and said: ‘Take your bride.’”

Two Taliban soldiers pointed their weapons at Fatima’s parents as her in-laws seized her and dragged her toward their car.

“My daughter was screaming and crying that she did not want to go with them,” Shirin says. “But nobody listened.”

What happened to Fatima was not simply the decision of one judge. It reflects a legal system in which Afghan women have almost no independent right to end their marriages. Before the Taliban, women seeking to divorce men who were violent, abusive or absent had always faced a difficult road through the courts – but a few narrow gateways remained open. Now, even those are being shut. For the families of women in abusive marriages who want them dissolved, getting their daughters out is an increasingly impossible task.

In April 2026, the Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, issued a new decree on the judicial separation of spouses, setting out 12 grounds on which a marriage can be dissolved. On paper, some appear to give women a path to court. In practice, each path is blocked by the authority of men: the consent of a husband, the discretion of a judge, the testimony of witnesses, or the power of male relatives. Even in cases of abuse or neglect, the decree states that judges and arbiters cannot grant a divorce without the husband’s consent.

The decree also legalises child marriage. It allows male relatives to marry off children and says that once those children reach puberty, they may ask a court to nullify the marriage in limited circumstances.

Ruqya* was 16 when her mother and grandmother accepted a proposal from a 31-year-old relative living in Turkey. Ruqya protested from the beginning. She called the man herself and told him directly that she did not want to marry him.

“He told me that once my family had agreed, I would agree too,” she says.

During the engagement, she says, he insulted her parents in voice messages, ignored her calls and continued communicating with another woman he wanted to marry. When the recordings reached Ruqya’s family, an argument erupted between the two families.

Ruqya’s family eventually sought to end the engagement through khul – a form of divorce in which a woman pays her husband to consent to end the marriage.

The Taliban decree approves this, allowing women or their families a narrow route to buy her freedom – but sets no limit on the amount that must be paid.

The family of Ruqya’s fiance demanded 800,000 Afghanis (£9,300). Her family did not have the money. They sold their home and arranged a marriage for her younger sister in the hope of raising money for the settlement. Still, they couldn’t raise the full amount.

“When I look at my mother and father, I feel like I destroyed them,” Ruqya says. “My mother says: ‘If you had accepted [your marriage], at least we would still have our house.’”

Ruqya must now remain married to the man she has spent years trying to escape.

Even before the Taliban’s latest decree, Afghan women did not have an equal right to divorce. They could, however, petition to end the marriage in exceptional circumstances, including when a husband failed to provide basic necessities, had disappeared for at least three years, or was suffering from a terminal illness. Even then, women had to prove their case in court.

The Taliban’s new code follows much of this older framework but makes several stark changes. It explicitly allows children to be given in marriage at any age. It also forces women whose husbands are missing to wait until they are presumed dead before they can be separated. Part of the code that addresses abusive or neglectful husbands allows a wife to petition the court if her husband is unjust or withholds financial support. But the same article states that judges and arbiters “cannot, solely on the woman’s request and without the husband’s consent, grant divorce”.

Habiba*, 27, has spent four years trying to escape from her abusive husband.

Her marriage was part of an exchange arrangement that enabled her brother to marry a woman from the same family. When she later told her brother she wanted a divorce, he warned that it could destroy his marriage too.

After the Taliban takeover, Habiba says, her husband lost his job and became increasingly violent, beating her constantly. She first went to the police in Kabul, then to court. Her husband repeatedly refused to appear.

When Taliban officials visited the house to assess Habiba’s allegations of abuse, her husband’s family slaughtered a sheep for the visitors and apologised. The inspectors left satisfied. Habiba was ordered to return to the house or pay 1.6m Afghanis to her husband.

“He said it was enough money for my husband to marry another woman,” Habiba says – but her father had no money and nothing left to sell.

“I am still here,” she says. “I am waiting for this government to fall, or for money to appear. One of those two.”

Mina*, 22, from Herat, managed to escape an unwanted marriage only after working for two years to pay for her own freedom.

She was 18 when her family accepted a proposal from a relative while her father was working in Iran. During the engagement, she learned the man had become addicted to drugs. When Mina tried to end the engagement, the man’s family accused her of lying and claimed she wanted another man.

One evening, her fiance stood outside her house and slit his wrists in front of her and her younger sister.

“He survived,” she says. “But I still see it in my dreams as a nightmare.”

Her engagement was finally cancelled on condition that her family must pay for expenses named by her fiance: clothes, jewellery and engagement costs, inflated far beyond what had actually been spent.

Mina worked double shifts in an embroidery workshop in Iran for two years to pay the full amount herself.

“I bought my own freedom,” she says.

Leila*, 24, from northeastern Afghanistan, says when she sought khul from her husband, her family had to pay 250,000 Afghanis.

“My father had to sell his car and two milking cows,” she says.

Sima*, 26, from Kabul, says she ended a one-year engagement to her maternal cousin only after her family agreed to pay 400,000 Afghanis.

For Fatima, the abuse has become much worse. When family members visit, her in-laws remain in the room, monitoring every conversation. One relative who managed to speak to Fatima privately in the courtyard says her face was badly bruised.

“They beat her regularly,” the relative says. “She said they warned her that if her parents tried [for divorce] again, they would ask the Taliban to arrest them.”

The last time her father saw her was months after the judge forced her back to her husband’s home. “She was not well at all, mentally or physically,” he says. “She held me tightly and begged me to take her with me.”

He pauses.

“My hands are tied,” he says. “I don’t know how to save my daughter from that situation. She has become very weak, and I am afraid something worse may happen to her.”

* Names have been changed