Gang-Rape Victim In Pakistan Stands Up For Justice Against Oppression

[NATO AIR]

wow, what an incredibly brave woman and how tragic she is in the situation she is in now.

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

NYTimes.com > Opinion
Sentenced to Be Raped
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: September 29, 2004
Nicholas D. Kristof
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.

 

[Comrade]

I applaud her!

I disagree with the author saying this, however:

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.

Musharaff standing beside her and we are standing behind him.

 

[NATO AIR]

i agree to an extent but where is the money the pakistani gov't promised her?

and we need laura bush and condeleeza rice to take stronger, more public stands on this issue. they are our examples to the world of women in positions of power carrying the same weight and responsibility the men do, as well as being examples of how educated women given a chance can make good on life's promise.

 

[Comrade]

i agree to an extent but where is the money the pakistani gov't promised her?

and we need laura bush and condeleeza rice to take stronger, more public stands on this issue. they are our examples to the world of women in positions of power carrying the same weight and responsibility the men do, as well as being examples of how educated women given a chance can make good on life's promise.

I'll agree with that. :kiss2:

 

[Zhukov]

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.

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

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people?

 

[nycflasher]

I applaud her!

I disagree with the author saying this, however:



Musharaff standing beside her and we are standing behind him.

I agree. But then I reread the article and his central point:

"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."

I think I agree with this more. It seems to me that the Taliban in Afghanistan and Sodomy and company in Iraq have used the threat of death and denying food and equal rights to education in order to control the masses. Much less talked about in the press these days in light of its preoccupation with Iraq is the fact that Afghan women are finally able to return to schools.

When I think of the countless horrors we as people have endured--facism, slavery, the plague, etc.-- I have to put the oppression of women, especially in 3rd world countries, right up there. It is emblematic of the atrocities against humanity occuring worldwide, and while I don't think we in the West ignore these problems completely, I'm not sure that the 140 billion we've spent in Iraq thus far was the wisest choice. Just as I don't think it's okay to ignore the continuous threats to our enviroment in the name of the War on Terror. To me dumping millions of gallons of carcinogenic substances into our waterways is domestic/enviromental terrorism.

 

[Zhukov]

Well, Islam itself must be 'revised', so-to-speak, before we can help the women who live beneath it.

 

[nycflasher]

Well, Islam itself must be 'revised', so-to-speak, before we can help the women who leave beneath it.

Well, I'll leave the revision of Islam to you since it such a monumental task. I'm going to do my part by electing a President that adheres more to the Constitution than his religion in leading my country.

For example, I need the President to help defend me and my people against terrorists who wish us harm. Dubya thinks I need him to defend my marriage?

 

[Avatar4321]

i agree to an extent but where is the money the pakistani gov't promised her?

and we need laura bush and condeleeza rice to take stronger, more public stands on this issue. they are our examples to the world of women in positions of power carrying the same weight and responsibility the men do, as well as being examples of how educated women given a chance can make good on life's promise.

Perhaps the government simply doesnt have the money. I mean Pakistan isnt exactly the United States that can borrow from itself in the future.

While i hope Mrs. Bush and Secretary Rice take a stronger more public stand on this issue, my opinion is why wait for them? We are all good men and women...well for the most part. We can take a stand as well. Get a grass roots group together or something.

 

[Avatar4321]

Well, I'll leave the revision of Islam to you since it such a monumental task. I'm going to do my part by electing a President that adheres more to the Constitution than his religion in leading my country.

For example, I need the President to help defend me and my people against terrorists who wish us harm. Dubya thinks I need him to defend my marriage?

Funny how you can read a story about an amazing woman and turn into a Bush bashing session.

Id rather have a man humble before God as President than a man who thinks he is the greatest think that walks this planet anyday.

 

[NATO AIR]

While i hope Mrs. Bush and Secretary Rice take a stronger more public stand on this issue, my opinion is why wait for them? We are all good men and women...well for the most part. We can take a stand as well. Get a grass roots group together or something.

i agree, but the politicizing of aid and assistance has really made things a mess for people trying to make a difference. It gets a genocide (Darfur) or a frightening emergency (AIDS) to get people who have different views on women's rights (some go all the way with support for abortion and contraceptives, others toe the line, others shake in anger at the mere suggestion) to work together to change and save lives.

i've dealt with this myself because i once co-chaired a student group at my college in the past that was supposed to raise funds for a USAID project in Jordan to assist local women and girls in dealing with rape and the danger of "honor killings". we had two meetings and promptly dissolved because nearly half of the 22 people involved opposed us supporting the raped women's right to the morning after pill.

i opppose abortion but this is just sickening to me. and that is just one of the obstacles to sticking up for women's rights overseas. there are sadly, even more. remove the politics and we could really get something done. until then, good luck.