PAKISTAN: Rape Victim Turns Women’s Rights Icon

By Zofeen Ebrahim Reprint | | Print |

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, Nov 14 2005 (IPS) - Quiet dignity envelopes her slender frame, downcast eyes and nearly inaudible speech. But the more Mukhtaran Mai withdraws into her self, the more she becomes the woman of steel who dared take on the might of the Pakistani state and extreme patriarchal attitudes.

Back from the United States, where she had gone to receive the Glamour magazine’s ‘Women of the Year’ award for this year, on Nov 3, Mukhtaran retains every bit of her devastating humility.

“It’s a victory for the poor, the world recognises us,” she told IPS. “I’m relieved I’m not in this fight against oppression of poor women, alone – I have the whole world with me.”

At Glamour magazine’s award ceremony in New York-where the illiterate Mai rubbed shoulders with nominees like Catherine Zeta-Jones, Goldie Hawn, Venus Williams, Christiane Amanpour, and Mary Robinson-the citation said Mai was being honoured for “her incredible courage and optimism in the face of terrible violence’’.

“If the world community hadn’t stood by her cause, she would have been yet another statistic. The women of Pakistan need more global support,” says Zohra Yusuf, a rights activist.

Mukhtaran Mai’s trials began in June 2002, when the panchayat (village council) in Meerwala, southern Punjab, ordered that she be gang-raped as punishment for her young brother’s alleged sexual liaison with a girl from the Mastoi clan that is regarded high in the social hierarchy.

After the gruesome punishment was carried out, Mai, then 30 years old, was made to walk home naked as crowds looked on, completing her public humiliation-and that of her kinsfolk.

Far from being another statistic in Pakistan’s long list of rights violations under the dreaded, religious ‘Hudood’ laws, Mai’s case triggered off protests at home and abroad, which brought embarrassment to the government of President Gen. Pervez Musharrraf.

As the outcry refused to die down and the government ran an investigation which seemed going nowhere, the Supreme Court stepped in with a suo moto notice which saw six of the 13 accused men awarded the capital punishment in August 2002.

The court’s ruling was widely hailed by civil society both in Pakistan and abroad. However, the convicts went in for an appeal.

On Mar. 8, this year, when the rest of the world celebrated the International Women’s Day, Pakistan hung its head in shame when five of the men accused by Mai were acquitted by a lower court and the sixth had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

The lower, trial court ruled that the evidence produced was insufficient and the police investigations faulty. But Mai appealed in the Supreme Court and all the 13 perpetrators were re-arrested on Jun. 28.

In June, the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Women invited Mai to tour the U.S. to speak about her experiences at symposia and meet representatives of other human rights organisations.

But citing ‘’national interest” and to protect Pakistan’s so called ‘softer image’, Musharraf banned her from travelling abroad and authorities confiscated her passport .

It took another round of domestic and international protests for her passport to be handed back to her and her name removed from the government’s ‘exit control list’ .

Meanwhile, Musharraf managed to worsen, rather than improve, the country’s image by suggesting, in an interview to the Washington Post newspaper, that rape had become a ‘’moneymaking concern’’ for non-government organisations (NGOs) in Pakistan.

Worse, Musharraf also suggested in the September interview that some women saw being raped as an easy means of getting visas to Western countries.

As outrage grew over the less than sensitive suggestions, and women’s rights activists staged protest rallies outside parliament building in Islamabad, Musharraf denied having made them-prompting Washington Post to post audios of the interview on the Internet.

Musharraf’s suggestion that NGOs were trying to make capital out of Mai’s case still draws protests from well-known activists and political leaders like Sherry Rehman, a member of the National Assembly from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

‘’Mai deserves more than this award. She needs the support of all Pakistanis, particularly those who were taken in by the anti-NGO propaganda unleashed by General Musharraf’s government,” Rehman told IPS, referring to Musharraf’s charges that women’s rights activists were creating trouble.

Rehman said that instead of recognising Mai’s bravery and that of other women, ‘’salt has been rubbed in their wounds by Gen. Musharraf who seems to subscribe to the belief that women use rape as an excuse to obtain an entry to sympathetic foreign countries abroad.”

“I think the award shows recognition for a woman who has been able to turn from being a victim into a defender of human rights, through her own courage and refusal to remain silent about her ordeal,” said Kamila Hayat, joint director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Hayat believes Mai’s example has helped encourage women to report rape and demand justice. “The (Glamour) award highlights the positive fallouts from what is otherwise a terrible case of violence and injustice.”

Unlettered Mai has begun picking up an education and is now in Grade three in the first ever school in the village that she established and where some 200 girls and 160 boys already come to study. “I’m learning to read simple Urdu sentences but have still not been able to pick up any English,” she said in native Punjabi.

“Both men and women will continue to suffer if we do not educate our children,’’ she said repeating what she told gatherings in the U.S. ’’

International attention, she believes, will prevent scores of women suffering a fate like Mai’s in future. Incidentally, thanks to the attention brought to Meerwala by Mai and her case, the village now has electricity and a paved road.

Mai suddenly finds herself being looked up to by ordinary people as a kind of a saviour. “She’s thronged by people who now come and see her from all over the place with their various problems,” says Naseem Akhtar, a companion who also doubles as her spokeswoman.

“She tells them she can listen to them, share their grief and lessen their pain and heartache, but cannot bring change overnight,” says Naseem, who believes Mai is too burdened with the onerous responsibilities she had taken upon her frail shoulders on behalf of the poor women of her country.

That perhaps is the reason why Tasneem Ahmar, the director of UKS, an Islamabad-based NGO that focuses on advocacy, training and research on gender issues sees Mai an “icon of courage” and as the “new and much-respected torch-bearer of the women’s movement in Pakistan’’.

“Her receiving the prestigious award is an acknowledgement of her commitment that she made to herself and hundreds of women not only in her village but across Pakistan,” Ahmar said.

She intends donating 5,000 US dollars from the 20,000 dollars she received from Glamour to the victims of the Oct.8 earthquake. ‘’We intend buying blankets and other essentials and going to Kashmir and Hazara and distributing the relief goods ourselves,” says Naseem.

Mai intends setting up a crises centre in Meerawala for women and also a non-profit women’s group – the Mukhtar Mai Women’s Welfare Organisation. “We need money for the office, to equip it, hire people to work for us and so this money will come in handy,” explains Naseem.

Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, a retired Supreme Court judge and author of the 1997 Report of the Commission of Inquiry for Women, which had then recommended the repeal of the Hudood laws regretted that “widespread support for her by civil society is still missing’’.

“Instead of committing suicide (as victims of rape often do) or living a life of anonymity, she took the bold step of raising aloud her voice against the feudalistic mindset in the country and becoming a symbol of great courage for our women,’’ Zahid said.