Mukhtaran Bibi
Rape survivor who transformed tragedy into hope
In the small village of Meerwala in Pakistan, Mukhtaran Bibi survived a horror few can imagine. Two years ago, the 28-year-old woman was gang-raped as "punishment" meted out by a local tribal council (jirga) in retaliation for her teenage brother's alleged affair with a woman from another tribe. The story has its roots in the centuries-old conflict between Mukhtaran’s tribe, the Gujjar, and the higher-caste Mastoi tribe.
Although Mukhtaran’s family’s offered to settle the matter peacefully, the Mastoi called for revenge–the violation of a Gujjar woman. The jury, dominated by Mastoi elders, selected Mukhtaran. She was dragged to a hut and raped at gunpoint by four Mastoi men. Armed guards prevented her family from saving her.
Hours later, the girl was forced to walk home covered only by a torn shirt, jeered at by villagers. Her brother was released from jail; the accusation against him had been withdrawn.
The charge against the boy was later found to be false, and Mukhtaran said that in fact her brother had been sodomized by Mastoi tribesmen who then fabricated the story of the boy’s crime.
Instead of killing herself as tradition demanded, Mukhtaran reported the rape to the police. An imam, outraged by the rape, asked a local reporter to talk to her, and her story was soon picked up by the national and international media.
Today, several of the rapists are on death row, and others on the tribal council face prison sentences.
President Pervez Musharraf presented Mukhtaran with about $8,300 as compensation. Rather than take the money and leave her village, Mukhtaran used the funds to build two schools, one for girls and one for boys. (Although a lack of the funds promised by the Pakistani government threatened to close the schools, an article in the New York Times by columnist Nicholas Kristof reportedly garnered $90,000 in donations.)
According to the Pakistan Human Rights Commission, Mukhtaran was one of hundreds of women raped or gang-raped in Pakistan each year. Most of those crimes go unreported and unpunished. Mukhtaran’s rare courage in speaking out and her determination to stay and help others have shed light on a critical human rights issue.
**Just Because You Have The Right To Do Something Does Not Mean That It's The Right Thing To Do**
Posted by Stacy at April 2, 2005 09:35 AM | TrackBack