Punishment of gang rape handed out by village court in Pakistan
By babykay
@babykay (2131)
Ireland
April 19, 2007 8:43pm CST
I have just read a book called :
In The Name of Honour by Mukhtar Mai
It is about a Pakistani woman who was raped by a gang of men on the orders of a village council in response to a perceived insult by her 12 year old brother. The 12 year old brother was also raped. Normally what would happen in these cases is that the woman commits suicide as she has no marriage prospects and the shame both for her and her family is unbearable, but this lady is most unusually. She is a hero in my eyes. She fought back by reporting the rape and it got some media coverage. News of this horrendous crime spread out of Pakistan and there was national and international condemnation. Despite opposition and harrasment from the Pakistani state, her neighbours, the police, this lady's quest for justice both for her own family and other victims of injustice is ongoing. The Pakistani government at one stage attempted to prevent her from leaving Pakistan as they viewed her as a trouble maker for speaking out and tarnishing Pakistans image. Below is a link which summarizes the whole affair as well as the efforts of this amazing lady - she has set up a school (she herself is illiterate) for girls and continues to campaign against gender based injustice and injustice of all kinds, she is truly amazing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4330335.stm
1 response
@pilbara (1436)
• Australia
20 Apr 07
You are right that is an incredible story.
I think the attitude of people in places like this towards women who are assaulted is positively horrific.
A group of men think they are insulted by a child and their response is to rape both the child and his sister who had nothing to do with the supposed insult. What kind of people are these men who think their response was appropriate and what kind of people and government continue to condone this kind of behaviour and to punish to victims of it.
This woman is not tarnishing the reputation of pakistan it is the men who act in this way and those who allow them to get away with it that are tarnishing the countries reputation.
I agree completely - this lady is absolutely heroic both in standing up and protesting about this, but also in helping others become more educated and maybe it will help conditions improve there in the future.
@babykay (2131)
• Ireland
20 Apr 07
Yes you are right. It is people who do such things as rape women and children in response to alleged insults who are the ones responsible for tarnishing Pakistan's worldwide image. This woman is doing Pakistan a favour by bringing these occurrences into the open. It is a truly heroic story and this woman is the closest thing to a modern day saint as I have seen in a long time.
