Posted on 01/27/2007 4:56:16 PM PST by blam
After being gang raped by her village elders, Mukhtar fought back...
By Isambard Wilkinson, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:43pm GMT 27/01/2007
Isambard Wilkinson in Multan, Pakistan, hears the extraordinary story of an illiterate peasant woman who took on her village as well as the state
Mukhtar Mai's story is as horrific as it is simple, and it is quickly told. On June 22, 2002, the council of her tiny village, on the southern fringes of the Punjab in Pakistan, ordered that she be gang raped as a punishment for an offence supposedly committed by her 12-year-old brother.
At gunpoint she was taken into a stable. Her clothes were ripped off and she was violated by four village elders. The ordeal lasted about half an hour and, when it was over, she was dragged out, semi-naked, in front of all the village men. Her father covered her with a shawl and carried her home.
Mukhtar, who is also known as Mukhtaran Bibi, should then have killed herself. That was the custom. But such was her sense of outrage and injustice that she refused to commit suicide; and that act of defiance started a sequence of events that turned her into an international cause célèbre, who was first praised and then condemned by Pakistan's president, Gen Pervez Musharraf.
Mukhtar, an illiterate peasant, is an unlikely heroine. The crime committed against her is not uncommon in an area benighted by poverty, acts of brutality against women and the rule of thuggish overlords.
But she has refused to be cowed by the pressure put upon her, by local officials right up to the president, to end her campaign against the men who raped her. She wants them to be hanged. "I will never forgive them," she said yesterday. "They must be punished according to the law."
This week, she publishes the autobiography she dictated, In the Name of Honour, which will again stir up the controversy over all that has happened to her. It took some persuading to get her to tell her story, and for the slight, shy 35-year-old with a lazy eye and a rare but wheezy laugh, recounting the events of that night, five years ago, is still painful.
The first time Mukhtar realised that something was wrong was when her father asked her to go with him to the village mosque. Her 12-year-old brother, Shakur, had been accused of committing a "crime" - she didn't know what - against a 20-year-old woman belonging to the local dominant caste, the Mastoi.
Mukhtar and her family are from the lowly Gujar caste and are expected to be subservient to the Mastoi. She thought that she was being asked, as a respectable woman, to speak to the village elders on behalf of her brother.
As Mukhtar, accompanied by her father, Ghulam Farid Jat, an uncle and a family friend, approached the mosque, she could see a large gathering of men outside. This was the panchayat, the village council.
What she didn't know was that it had been taken over by the Mastoi men, who had resolved that to appease the honour of their caste, she must be raped in revenge for what they claimed was the rape of one of their women by Shakur.
"I never thought that anything could happen," says Mukhtar. "I went there to apologise and come back home."
She spread a shawl at their feet as a sign of subservience. Five men armed with rifles and a pistol threatened the Gujars.
The Mastoi leader, Abdul Khaliq, grabbed her arm, others pulled her hair and clothes and she was dragged into an empty stable.
On the beaten earth of the stable floor, Mukhtar was raped by four men: Abdul Khaliq, Gulam Farid, Allah Dita and Mohammed Faiz.
Mukhtar finds describing her fight-back difficult, too.
"It is not an incident that gives you any relief," she said. "I still have pain."
After the rape, she ignored death threats and pressed charges. A local imam denounced the attack at Friday prayers and the crime became national news, after the local newspaper reported his sermon.
In September 2002, the case was tried in a special anti-terrorism court. "I begged and pleaded with the rapists, but they were like animals," Mukhtar told the court.
"One of them put a gun on my head while the others tore up my clothes."
The four men were sentenced to death, along with two members of the panchayat. It transpired that the allegation against Shakur, was made up in an attempt to hide the fact that it was her brother who had been raped by men from the Mastoi caste.
Three men were later sentenced to three years in prison for that crime.
Initially, the Pakistani government lauded Mukhtar as a heroine; President Musharraf even handed her a £4,500 gift. But when the case received publicity abroad and Mukhtar was asked to visit America to talk about her ordeal, the government put her name on Pakistan's "exit control list", which blocked her from leaving the country.
They were afraid that the case would give the wrong impression of Pakistan.
According to Amna Buttar, one of Mukhtar's close circle, a friend of Gen Musharraf threatened her, saying that Pakistan's intelligence services can "do anything.
We can just pay a little money to some black guys in New York and get people killed there".
Asked about the ban, President Musharraf said she was being exploited by "Westernised fringe elements" who wanted her to "bad-mouth" Pakistan. He later said that the rape had become a money-making concern."
"He is a great sardar [chief] and I am a peasant," said Mukhtar. "But when they talk of me shaming the country, he should be careful, as he is also the son of a woman."
In 2005, thousands of her supporters took to the streets to protest, after the death sentences against the rapists were overturned. However, that decision was quickly revoked by the Supreme Court, although it has still to issue a final judgment.
"Fate is in the hands of Allah," says Mukhtar simply. Her own global fame is at odds with her modesty, and her ambition and affection remains focused on her village, despite all that has happened there.
"I have a routine of dealing with people continually. I don't have a life of my own, as groups always come to the village."
She has used her compensation money, along with international donations, to start two schools in her village and to run a charity to promote women's development.
Mukhtar, who had been married at 16, divorced her husband after three years of unsatisfactory marriage. Now, since she attained fame (and a reasonable amount of money), she has received a dozen marriage proposals.
"I haven't found a good person yet," she laughed. "But I trust men. I am not against them."
She may have achieved fame and more money than she could have dreamed of a few years ago, but her life is still in danger.
Just a few hundred yards from her family's home is the large compound of the Mastoi. They have neither forgotten nor forgiven, and have threatened to kill her and her brother.
Chris Cork, an English development agency consultant who helps Mukhtar with her village projects, is convinced that the Mastoi will get their revenge. "They have said they will kill her one day. And they will. She has great courage and dignity. She never asked for fame."
"What if you are killed?" I ask Mukhtar.
"I am just the first drop of water in the village," she says quietly. "I believe it will rain after me."
In the Name of Honour, by Mukhtar Mai, will be published this week by Virago
3 years for raping a boy????
It is really apparent this is a religion of peace. Obviously Europe needs this in ample doses. Allah must be glad.
This is appalling, but not at all surprising.
You got a problem wid dat???
I surely do.
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.
The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."
-Sir Winston Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).
I'm surprised they got that much time. Damned animals.
3 years for raping a boy????
Wasn't there a judge in NH recently who gave 6 months?
So why doesn't someone get her out of there and take her to civilization? She could do a lot of good in the West by speaking about the way women are treated by the Religion of Peace. It would be easier to protect her here.
They should be more afraid that the case would give the right impression of Pakistan.
too bad so many folks are unable to read and understand the message.
But wait! 3 years for raping a boy....and they accused HIM of rape in order to gang rape his sister as well...as punishment for the crime he never committed. Lovely.
Hillary would know from her experiences with Billy...
** IT TAKES A VILLAGE.... **
(Did she get that line from Juanita Broderick?)
Gee! Ya Think?
Have you seen this one before?
"To me it seems certain that the fatalistic teachings of Muhammad and the utter degradation of women is the outstanding cause for the arrested development of the Arab. He is exactly as he was around the year 700, while we have kept on developing"
-- General George S. Patton: The War as I Knew it, 1974, p.49
What those Mastoi men failed to acknowledge is that they themselves destroyed whatever honor they might have had and they utterly dishonored their "caste" by this "revenge rape" of a vulnerable, defenseless, and innocent woman.
They could not have sunk lower.
Their "caste" could not have been more dishonored.
Obviously, the Mastoi caste is far lower than the Gujar caste.
And her father took her there. He knew what would happen. He was 'repaying' a debt.
Sorry to seem oxymoronic.
There's no place for Islam in Western civilization. Too bad more leaders/people don't recognize that.
The women in that tribe talked with the press many times. They have no doubts that their tribe is superior. The fact that she has been raped renders her entire tribe inferior. It wouldn't surprise me at all if her brother killed her to avenge their honor.
Quite telling that her rapists were Muhammad and Allah. They are continuing to rape 1.3 Billion muslims of their access to salvation.
Thanks, I have not seen that by Patton. I added it to my home page here.
This couldn't have happened. Islam is a religion of peace.
-- General George S. Patton: The War as I Knew it, 1974, p.49
Great quote! Thanks.
But wait! 3 years for raping a boy....and they accused HIM of rape in order to gang rape his sister as well...as punishment for the crime he never committed. Lovely
But we are to talk to them, and make treaties, and expect them to uphold them.
"I am just the first drop of water in the village"
she says quietly. "I believe it will rain after me".
--they spoke in their own voices/
and it was poetry.
The religion of piece.
Just an excuse for old f*rts to have their way with sheep, goats, camels, boys and girls under the will of Mohammed. Allah Akbar!
OMG that disgusting f***kin General Musffaha badmouthing her
Excuse me General just because your country men are stuck in 12th century you think this bad PR how about teaching your countrymen it not cool of raping Village woman like this
I'll make the point again....
This is PAKISTAN...
The combination of Islam and Pakistan is toxic....and should be cordoned off from the civilized world..
Semper Fi
--they spoke in their own voices/ and it was poetry.
Illiteracy notwithstanding, this woman is a certainly a leader.
LOL Now that right there's funny.....I don't care who you you are.
Mosque? I thought this was about a street gang in the village.
What an eclectic religion, that fundamentalist Islam is!
OK - a couple of things...
First - We are actually trying to make friends with these animals?
Second - Where are the "peace-loving", Amnesty International-types? shouldn't they be filling the airwaves with protests, filing papers with every international human rights organizations, and generally raising a stink....
OH>..I forgot, those groups only complain when it's the US's "fault"...
Don't be so derogatory - they may end up becoming your neighbors. Isn't it diversity that we are trying to promote by letting scum like these in?
The issue is one of translation. "Honor" is the wrong word here. There is no English word to describe it, but "face" comes close. The clan felt that they had been "disrespected", or "dissed" in slum slang. And just like a slum gang, they cannot afford to let people think that they can be "dissed" without bad things happening to somebody.
These Pakistanis have no concept of "honor" in the Western sense
"Despicable muslim primitivism.
Sorry to seem oxymoronic."
Did you mean redundant, not oxymoronic?
Tends to make me think that she has much more intelligence than the ones casting their perverted judgement.
too bad there's nobody like
phoolan devi(deceased) in pakistan.
she took no prisoners.
Phoolan Devi, the self-anointed Queen of the Dacoits, led raids throughout Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh where she was also the self-appointed avenger for women's rights. Whenever she heard of a rape, a forced abortion, or the coerced suicide of a disgraced woman, Phoolan took it upon herself to punish the men responsible. "Whenever I heard of it, I crushed the serpent they used to torture women. I dismembered them." She tracked down a particularly lecherous old thakur who tortured women and had sex with young boys and animals. "His serpent first, then his hands, then his feet... I cut them off." Her gang was "sickened" by her blood lust, but her act of retribution was performed before a picture of the goddess Durga, and Phoolan Devi felt thoroughly justified doing it.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/phoolan_devi/4.html
etc.
But the article is clear that the cause is poverty, not Islam.
The crime committed against her is not uncommon in an area benighted by poverty, acts of brutality against women and the rule of thuggish overlords.
Thought you might find this link interesting. It shows where your nearest mosque is, along with locally owned Islamic businesses that you can support and other great information. ;)
http://islam.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=islam&cdn=religion&tm=13&gps=111_143_1276_602&f=20&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.islamicfinder.org/
And this one is REALLY good. It shows a Google map with all mosques and schools in the USA. Try it out and see how many are near you. :)
http://www.salatomatic.com/
Wow, I made the Jihad Bride graphic almost 3 years ago... It wasn't that big of a deal at the time, but Googling it now indicates its had a bit of a 'second wind' in the last few months.
Thanks for the post.
It is reassuring that someone as great as Winston Churchill saw the evil of muslimism as clearly as I and others do today.
And, we understand and recommend the cure!
You did that?
A fine piece of work. Terrific job!
It begs the question, why don't Muslims in America resist; i.e., be specific in their criticism of terrorism, they should stop talking about McVeigh (he WAS NOT a Christian), American Muslims should name radical Muslims. Why won't they do it in mass? I wonder. The very few who do speak out are in danger -- Muslims in America must know that there's safety in numbers, if they really care.
Not "oxymoronic". The word you're looking for is "redundant", I think.
How many pages is the autobiography of an illiterate person?
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