Pakistan has passed a law that has legalised chemical castration for repeat rapists

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In a country often saddled with sexau assault and rape cases — a new move will dramatically hope to change the number of cases each year. According to newly signed legislation, Pakistan now joins Poland and a select few other countries that use chemical castration on rapists. Chemical castration involves the use of medication meant to reduce the level of testosterone present.

Countries like Poland have done such since about 2006 and Indonesia since roughly 2016 according to government websites in those countries. The new move comes amid a very high spate of rapes against women in children in Pakistan and the often ineffective prosecution towards those cases.

One prominent example that triggered the new law is the case of a French woman last year who was gang raped while her children watched. Last September, the unidentified woman was reportedly suffering a broken down car just outside the city of Lahore when two men stopped near her vehicle. Instead of helping her, they gang-raped her in front of her children they were later identified as Abid Malhi and Shafqat Ali. Both men were actually arrested but not for quite some time later.