A number of prominent Pakistani women have come forward with their own stories of sexual assault, saying they want to change traditions that consider abuse as a mark of shame for the victim. Those traditions, they say, help predators get away with abuse and encourage an already corrupt police force to ignore such crimes.

Maheen Khan, a legendary Pakistani fashion designer, tweeted that she had been sexually abused as a child by an Islamic cleric who taught her the Quran. "I froze in fear day after day," she tweeted. At 73, Khan has spoken publicly only once before of the abuse.

"We are now saying enough is enough. We should have woken up long ago," she said in a telephone interview from her home in the southern city of Karachi. "I am ashamed to say it has taken this one little girl's death."

"What disturbs me the most is the silence when a little girl gets raped," she said. "It has to do with the honor of family. Parents tell their daughters: 'Don't talk about it. Don't tell anyone.' Our silence is saying it is all right to sexually molest a child."