HUMAN RIGHTS groups have expressed outrage after most of those accused of the gang rape of Mukhtaran Mai, who was assaulted on the orders of a village council, were freed by Pakistan’s supreme court. Nine years after the gang rape, Ms Mai’s struggle for justice ended with the court freeing five of the six accused.
A distraught Ms Mai, who has won international acclaim for her bravery in a deeply chauvinistic society, said the release of the men had put her life in danger.
Originally 14 had been accused of taking part in the rape, which was ordered in 2002 by village elders sitting as a traditional tribal court after Ms Mai’s brother was accused of having illicit relations with a woman from a rival clan.
The court judgment acknowledged that Ms Mai had been raped, by upholding the sentence against one of the accused, Abdul Khaliq, but the outcome means that just one of the 14 men she believes were involved has been found guilty. Khaliq’s original death sentence had already been commuted to life in prison by a lower court.
“I am scared these 13 people will come back to my village and harm me and my family,” Ms Mai said, in her remote home in the south of Punjab province. “I have lost faith in the courts and now I am leaving my case to the court of God. I am sure God will punish those who molested me.”
Ms Mai has started a school for girls and a non-governmental organisation that promotes women’s education. She vowed she would not flee her village, and would continue her work.
The supreme court was heavily criticised by human rights groups for the verdict, which they said put the safety of all Pakistani women at risk. Rape, “honour killings” and other crimes against women in Pakistan are routinely poorly investigated by police and go unpunished by the courts.
“Mukhtaran Mai has had the courage to fight for so many years. This [verdict] shows that you can commit any crime, even in front of 100 people, and get away with it,” said Fouzia Saeed, a women’s rights activist, outside the court.
Ms Mai’s ordeal began after her 13-year-old brother was accused by a more powerful clan of having sex with one of their young women. He was then sodomised in a sugar cane field by the woman’s brother, Abdul Khaliq, and two other men. There appears to be no basis for the original accusation.
A tribal council was assembled from Khaliq's clan, which ordered that Ms Mai be punished for her brother's illicit sex by being raped, on the basis of eye-for-an-eye justice. Ms Mai was forced at gunpoint by Khaliq into a stable, where he and other clan members raped her. She was then paraded naked around the village. Tradition dictated that she commit suicide, as the shame supposedly fell on her, but she decided to fight her tormentors. – ( Guardianservice)