Sentenced to be Raped

[Tracey]

Sentenced to Be Raped
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: September 29, 2004


Mukhtaran Bibi, a Pakistani woman whom a tribal council sentenced to be gang-raped.

EERWALA, Pakistan — I'm still trying to help out President Bush by tracking down Osama bin Laden. After poking through remote parts of Pakistan, asking for a tall Arab with a beard, I can't say I've earned that $25 million reward.

But I did come across someone even more extraordinary than Osama.

Usually we journalists write about rogues, but Mukhtaran Bibi could not be more altruistic or brave, as the men who gang-raped her discovered. I firmly believe that the central moral challenge of this century, equivalent to the struggles against slavery in the 19th century or against totalitarianism in the 20th, will be to address sex inequality in the third world - and it's the stories of women like Ms. Mukhtaran that convince me this is so.

The plight of women in developing countries isn't addressed much in the West, and it certainly isn't a hot topic in the presidential campaign. But it's a life-and-death matter in villages like Meerwala, a 12-hour drive southeast from Islamabad.

In June 2002, the police say, members of a high-status tribe sexually abused one of Ms. Mukhtaran's brothers and then covered up their crime by falsely accusing him of having an affair with a high-status woman. The village's tribal council determined that the suitable punishment for the supposed affair was for high-status men to rape one of the boy's sisters, so the council sentenced Ms. Mukhtaran to be gang-raped.

As members of the high-status tribe danced in joy, four men stripped her naked and took turns raping her. Then they forced her to walk home naked in front of 300 villagers.

In Pakistan's conservative Muslim society, Ms. Mukhtaran's duty was now clear: she was supposed to commit suicide. "Just like other women, I initially thought of killing myself," said Ms. Mukhtaran, now 30. Her older brother, Hezoor Bux, explained: "A girl who has been raped has no honorable place in the village. Nobody respects the girl, or her parents. There's a stigma, and the only way out is suicide."

A girl in the next village was gang-raped a week after Ms. Mukhtaran, and she took the traditional route: she swallowed a bottle of pesticide and dropped dead.

But instead of killing herself, Ms. Mukhtaran testified against her attackers and propounded the shocking idea that the shame lies in raping, rather than in being raped. The rapists are now on death row, and President Pervez Musharraf presented Ms. Mukhtaran with the equivalent of $8,300 and ordered round-the-clock police protection for her.

Ms. Mukhtaran, who had never gone to school herself, used the money to build one school in the village for girls and another for boys - because, she said, education is the best way to achieve social change. The girls' school is named for her, and she is now studying in its fourth-grade class.

"Why should I have spent the money on myself?" she asked, adding, "This way the money is helping all the girls, all the children."

I wish the story ended there. But the Pakistani government has neglected its pledge to pay the schools' operating expenses. "The government made lots of promises, but it hasn't done much," Ms. Mukhtaran said bluntly.

She has had to buy food for the police who protect her, as well as pay some school expenses. So, she said, "I've run out of money." Unless the schools can raise new funds, they may have to close.

Meanwhile, villagers say that relatives of the rapists are waiting for the police to leave and then will put Ms. Mukhtaran in her place by slaughtering her and her entire family. I walked to the area where the high-status tribesmen live. They denied planning to kill Ms. Mukhtaran, but were unapologetic about her rape.

"Mukhtaran is totally disgraced," Taj Bibi, a matriarch in a high-status family, said with satisfaction. "She has no respect in society."

So although I did not find Osama, I did encounter a much more ubiquitous form of evil and terror: a culture, stretching across about half the globe, that chews up women and spits them out.

We in the West could help chip away at that oppression, with health and literacy programs and by simply speaking out against it, just as we once stood up against slavery and totalitarianism. But instead of standing beside fighters like Ms. Mukhtaran, we're still sitting on the fence.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/opinion/29kris.html?hp

[Africanprince]

Man thats a deep story

[Poetic_Princess]

Blessigns
honestly im so speechless it is like the impossible becoming possible, honestly it makes u wonder if these people have hearts, but i must say she is one brave soul and much blessings to her.

[leslie]

The victim should be admired for using that unfortunate event to help uplift her community. Firstly, she challenged the status quo by not terminating her life and secondly, she helped build a school for the community, which she now attends. As gruesome as the act (of rape) is, the experience can be used to benefit the individual in some way or the other (as was demonstrated by this victim).
"We in the west" need to deal with our own mistreatment of women. To try to intervene in Pakistan or anywhere else would be hypocritical!

[Empress_Zauditu_Ariel-YAH]

Greetings,
If all are truly interested in this subject, a very educational, heartfelt, and informative book to read is With All Our Strength (The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) by Anne E. Brodsky.  Fortunetly, I am taking a lecture class with the author, and I can testify that the book is heartfelt and not the romanticized version of what you may see on the news and read in the papers.  Dr. Brodsky, is an active member of RAWA, and went to study and live with these oppressed women for a few years beginning right after the Sept. 11th incident.  It is important for us as women to be knowledgeable of what is going on in these developing countries, because so much of the same is still happening in Africa and, to a lesser extent, even in western so called developed countries.  Plus, it gives us insight into the realities of all that our ancestorsial mothers have gone through.  It is further important for men to read this book and be knowledgeable about these issues because it is their mothers, wives, sisters, and children who are subjected to these autrocities (whether mentally or physicall or both) -- better understanding, knowledge, and respect of us leads to better care, adoration, and love for us.
Bless!

[Tracey]

Update:

Village Gang-Rape Sentences Are Upset by Court in Pakistan
By SALMAN MASOOD

Published: March 4, 2005

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 3 - Five men sentenced to death in 2002 for their role in a gang rape that was approved by a council in a remote Pakistani village had their convictions overturned Thursday. A sixth man convicted in the case, which set off worldwide outrage, had his death sentence commuted to life in prison, lawyers in the case said.

The circumstances of the rape, in June 2002 in Meerwala, in southern Punjab Province, brought demands for justice, and the government moved fast to bring the case to trial.

According to the prosecution, the Meerwala council ordered the gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, then 30, as punishment for the alleged illicit sexual relations of her brother Shakoor with a woman from the rival Mastoi tribe.

It was later revealed that he had been molested by Mastoi men who tried to conceal it by accusing him of illicit relations with a Mastoi woman. The Mastoi demanded revenge. That was delivered when the council approved the rape of Ms. Mukhtar.

Fourteen men were charged in the case and six of them - the leader of the village council, a council member and the four men suspected of carrying out the rape - were convicted and sentenced to death in September 2002. The convicted men appealed.

Two High Court judges, in their decision on Thursday, cited loopholes in the prosecution case and faulty police investigations, Pakistani news media reported.

Defense lawyers said the 2002 decision was "influenced by media hype and government pressure."

Ms. Mukhtar said she was disappointed at the latest decision, and blamed her lawyers.

The case gained international prominence because the assault was approved by the village council. The councils have no legal authority but are used in remote areas because of the poor reach of central authority. Public outcry led the government to place the case in an antiterrorism court and give Ms. Mukhtar police guards and $8,300 in compensation.

She has won praise for speaking out after the rape and for using the money to set up schools. Since the first trial, she said, she had faced death threats. She said Thursday's ruling intensified her fear. "We are afraid for our lives, but we will face whatever fate brings for us."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/04/international/asia/04pakistan.html?th

[Tracey]

Pakistani Rape Case Goes to High Court
Victim Says Movement, Speech Restricted

By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 28, 2005

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 27 -- Ten days after Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declared her a threat to the country's image, Mukhtar Mai sat prominently in a front-row seat of Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday, still seeking justice after being gang-raped three years ago, allegedly on orders of a tribal council.

The court began hearing arguments Monday on Mai's appeal to reopen the case. In March, a lower court overturned the convictions of five of the six men charged in connection with the rape on the basis of insufficient evidence. The men had been sentenced to death. The sixth man charged had his death sentence converted to life in prison.
     
Mukhtar Mai arrives at the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Islamabad. A lower court's decision in March to overturn rape convictions of five men charged in her case brought international condemnation. The men have since been rearrested.
Mukhtar Mai arrives at the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Islamabad. A lower court's decision in March to overturn rape convictions of five men charged in her case brought international condemnation. The men have since been rearrested.

"I am expecting the Supreme Court to give the same kind of ruling," Mai, 32, told reporters before entering the courtroom with dozens of supporters.

In an episode that has become a focal point for concerns about violence against women in Pakistan, Mai was attacked in Meerwala, her village in southern Punjab province. The council allegedly ordered the rape to settle a score with Mai's brother, 13, who had been accused of an improper relationship with the sister of one of those accused.

Mai, who now runs two primary schools in her village with help from the government and private donors, was barred from traveling to the United States this month, because Musharraf said he feared she would project a "bad image" of Pakistan.

Pakistan lifted the travel ban following protests from the Bush administration and other governments. But Mai and her supporters charge that the government has continued to interfere with her freedom of speech and movement in the guise of ensuring her safety.

Nilofar Bakhtiar, a government adviser on women's issues, denied any effort to silence Mai. Bakhtiar noted that Musharraf had directed government funding to Mai's schools and for electricity and water projects in Meerwala.

"We are all together," she said, citing the presence of Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan on Mai's legal team. "For us, it is a test case also."

Bakhtiar said that Musharraf had ordered the travel ban "because he received some information from Pakistanis living abroad and some other agencies that this trip should not take place."

Asked to describe the information, Bakhtiar replied, "There were some reasons. He's the head of the country. He should know."

On Monday, a three-judge panel of the court considered arguments about whether it has jurisdiction in the case. The hearing was scheduled to continue Tuesday. If the court agrees to consider the appeal, it could render a verdict or refer the matter to a lower court, an outcome that could delay a final resolution for a year or more, legal experts said.

In overturning the convictions, the Lahore High Court cited Mai's failure to report the rape for seven days and what it described as unreliable medical evidence. Human rights advocates said Mai's reluctance to report the crime was hardly surprising in light of the stigma that attends to rape in this conservative Islamic society. They also noted threats against her.

The five men who had their convictions overturned were released after the March decision and returned to Meerwala. Mai's supporters raised concerns about her safety, and she has been under a 24-hour police guard. The men have since been rearrested on orders of the provincial government.

Musharraf confirmed this month that he had barred Mai from traveling to the United States at the invitation of human rights organizers. During a visit to New Zealand, he described the organizers as "Westernized fringe elements" who wanted her to "bad-mouth Pakistan," according to the Associated Press.

Mai said last week that she had been told the ban had been lifted. But before her trip from Punjab for Islamabad on Sunday, Mai complained that her movements were still restricted by the heavy security that surrounds her everywhere she goes, according to the Associated Press.

"Are free people like this?" she asked reporters at the airport in the city of Multan. "I am not being allowed to speak with people."

On Monday afternoon, a reporter who attempted to visit Mai at a government women's shelter in Islamabad where she is staying was turned away by plainclothes police armed with assault rifles. The police refused to deliver a message to her. Reached later on her cell phone, Mai said she had been ordered by her attorney not to speak publicly until the Supreme Court concluded its current round of hearings.

Bakhtiar said reports that the government is restricting Mai's freedom were "absolutely untrue," adding, "She has been talking to the whole world, for God's sake."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062700632.html?referrer=email