Pakistan rape victim's blog makes waves

All,

The Pakistani government has put a controversial women's rights bill on hold to appease the ultra-conservative Islamic parties. Human rights activists branded this decision a disaster for Pakistani women. Rape is dealt with under Islamic laws known as the "Hudood Ordinances" which makes sex a criminal offence outside of marriage and a rape victim must provide four male witnesses to verify the crime or she could face punishment herself.

The case of rape victim Mukhtaran Mai heightened reform calls.

Mukhtar Mai was once an anonymous Pakistani villager - but that was before she was gang-raped, apparently on the orders of local elders in a neighbouring village.

From then onwards she has been determined to bring them to justice, and her fight made her an international figure.
Some of the men she said attacked her were convicted, but then the appeal court in Lahore overturned their convictions, amid an outcry from human rights groups.


Now Mukhtar Mai, who is in her mid-30s, is writing her own internet diary, or blog, about her life and her concerns, as a woman from a remote village in southern Punjab.


'Exceptional'
Girls in Mukhtar Mai's village have her to thank for their education.

She established the school and others with compensation money awarded to her by the courts in her rape trial.


Mukhtar Mai is exceptional because she defied the shame of the gang-rape four years ago by not only bringing her attackers to justice, but also by fighting for a change in traditional attitudes towards women.
In that role, she hears many of the problems facing the women of her village. And she now contributes a weekly diary or weblog to the internet site of the BBC Urdu Service.


"Mostly I talk about incidents which are cruel and painful. I try to discuss only the most serious things in my blog: the poor treatment of women, sometimes leading to killing," she says.


Mukhtar Mai's blog is unique. Although she cannot read or write, she tells her stories to a local BBC journalist, who types it up as a web diary.

Full story here - on BBC News

If you understand her language you can read her blog here - there doesn't appear to be an English translation.

 

No kidding!!

 

We have many Muslims here in all walks of life including the police force and Members of Parliament and all the Muslims I've met have been really nice people. I think the law that was being called on here was a very old law and those calling for it to be used were extremists. I don't think the majority of Muslim people would want that law enforced and they certainly wouldn't be able to enforce it over here.