Pakistani Women's Rights Heroine Mukhtar Mai on NBC Dateline

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Dateline joins New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof as he reports on one Pakistani woman’s struggle for justice and her determination to change the lives of women around her.

Mukhtar Mai was gang raped in 2002, at the order of a tribal council in the eastern provice of Punjab. It’s my understanding that the rape was ordered to restore honor and punish Muktar’s family for her brother’s alleged indiscretion with a woman from a higher-caste family. via Glamour Magazine: A One-Woman War on Injustice (Note: Mukhtar Mai’s family says he’s completely innocent.)

via Glamour MagazineThe defiant Mukhtar Mai was featured as one of Glamour Magazine’s 2005 Women of the Year, for her efforts not only in surviving her gang rape but deciding not to commit suicide, which was expected of her, to restore the honor of her own family. This is a common expectation of women who are raped in many countries of the world.

Not only did Muhktar decide to press her case legally — with the support of her mother — but she won in court.

The Dateline feature follows Muhktar’s story including her use of the compensation money to fund a school for girls in Pakistan. In an interesting twist, Huff Po reported last March that Mukhtar Mai now the second wife of Nasir Abbas Gabol, a police officer who was assigned to protect her as her case gained notoriety.

This story also is filled with local customs and intrigue, including the fact that Nasir Gabol threatened to kill himself when Muhktar rejected his offer of marriage. Her husband is totally enraptured by Muhktar’s “extreme courage”.

Pakistani women via Flickr’s BrajesshwarA One-Woman War on Injustice: Glamour Magazine

Update on Mon, September 14, 2009 by Anne

Slate Magazine has published today a review of Half the Sky, written by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and his Chinese-American wife, Sheryl WuDunn.

The focus of the review — and the book Half the Sky is the concept of “gendercide”.

More girls are killed in this “gendercide” each decade than in all the genocides of the 20^th century. This year, another 2 million girls will “disappear.”

The Slate review does refer to Mukhtar Mai’s case. In an effort to open up the details of this case, I quote Slate:

In July 2002, her younger brother was kidnapped and gang raped by a higher-status clan. In order to cover up the crime, the gang accused him of having raped one of “their” girls. A tribal council heard the case and found him guilty—and ruled that, as punishment, his sister Mukhtar should be gang raped.

If other versions of the case appear, I will add them to this article. In my experience, having travelled and worked so extensively in this part of the world, these words also are humiliating to the family, but I don’t have an editorial board to advise me here.

Until I do, I’ll respond to the criticism levied at my ommission of facts yesterday, printing the story as it appears in reputable media sources. Anne

Comments

[earwicga]

May I suggest you read a little more about Mukhtar Mai, and can recommend 'In the Name of Honour', by Mukhtar Mai. Nicholas Kristof has written about this case on numerous occasions.

This fragment from above is not only false, but also deeply offensive:

"It’s my understanding that the rape was ordered to restore honor and punish Muktar’s family for her brother’s indiscretion with a woman from a higher-caste family."

[Anne]

It would have been helpful to readers if Earwicga had outlined the specific error in the "deeply offensive" nature of my sentence. I don't mind being in the "frying pan", but we help each other by sharing information. She and I have communicated privately, so I'm a bit wowed here.

I just watched the NBC Dateline piece again and read Kristoff, where it's not easy to pull together the thread of about five years, without spending more time than I have.

I returned to the Glamour piece that I quoted, along with twos I read, reading all carefully for what I missed. I believe the offense is that I didn't clarify that the family has always maintained the innocence of Mukhtar Mai's brother.

I knew that fact and probably should have said so. I've now added "alleged". Ann Curry refers to him as innocent. And the Glamour article, written in Pakistan with Mukhtar, summer 2008, uses the word "alleged".

My own use of "indiscretion" rather than "rape" was my attempt not to sensationalize her brother and stay focused on Mukhtar Mai, and not the family matter dispute.

If Earwicga is challenging the reference to caste as my "deeply offensive" act, then she must weigh in with more information to help us. I quoted Glamour mag and said so, linking right to their reference.

At moments like this -- when I see the delicate nature of this interpersonal communication -- it depresses me to think that we will never solve the problems on the road ahead.

Hopefully, a Muslim woman in London will be taking over editorial responsibilities for this channel. I love her sense of humor, desire to achieve something genuinely positive with A of C and willingness to 'tease me' , pointing out that she prefers burquinis, while I'm probably pro-bikinis. Nevertheless, we can accomplish a lot together.

Now that's my kind of woman!

Earwicga, if using "alleged" doesn't set the record straight, you gotta help me out here. Thanks. Anne

Glamour magazine, July 1, 2008

Mukhtar’s activism springs from a personal trauma. Four years ago, at about 28 (she is unsure of her exact age), she was gang-raped at the order of a tribal council. The rape was conceived as punishment for her younger brother’s alleged affair with a woman from the Mastois, a higher-caste tribe. (Mukhtar’s family says he’s completely innocent.) Afterward, Mukhtar considered suicide, a common response following such a loss of honor. When she raised going to the police, her father initially told her to keep quiet. Her elder brother threatened suicide himself if she went public. Only her mother, Bachual Haton, urged Mukhtar to seek justice. “I told her, ‘It is your right,’ ” says Bachual, a heavyset woman with a strong, broad face and dark eyes. “I told her to fight. Someone has to be the first drop of rain.” End

In a further attempt to stay on track here, I want to focus on Muktar's own words, printed in Glamour, from her memoir "In the Name of Honor":

Intro: Sent on behalf of her family to ask the Mastoi tribe for forgiveness after her brother was wrongly accused of an affair with one of its women, Mukhtar Mai knew to be scared—but she didn’t know that night would change her life. Here, from her memoir, In the Name of Honor, she recounts the horror. (quoted in Glamour)

Mikhtar's rape:

"I walk along a dirt path, followed by my father, my uncle and a friend who has been acting as an intermediary. The June night burns with the heat of the day; the birds are asleep, the goats, too. Somewhere a dog barks. Ahead, I see men, more than 100 of them, illuminated by a light at the entrance to the Mastois’ farm. I spread a shawl out at the feet of the Mastois as a sign of allegiance. From memory, I recite a verse from the Koran, holding my hand on the holy book: “If my brother has committed an offense, I ask pardon in his place, and I ask you to set him free.”

"One of the men, Faiza, shakes his head in disdain. I pray silently, and then fear strikes, like a monsoon, numbing my body with a lightning bolt: Now I see in his eyes that he wanted a Gujar woman so that he could take revenge in front of the entire village. This is the first time that the counselors have fixed upon a gang rape for “honor justice.”

"I am there, true, but it isn’t me anymore: This petrified body, these collapsing legs no longer belong to me. I am about to faint, but I never get the chance—they drag me away like a goat led to slaughter. Men’s arms pull my clothes, my shawl, my hair. “Release me!” I scream. “In the name of God, let me go!” Escape is impossible. Prayer is impossible."

"They rape me, on the beaten earth of an empty stable. Four men. I don’t know how long that vicious torture lasts. An hour? All night? I, Mukhtar Bibi, eldest daughter of my father, Ghulam Farid Jat, lose all consciousness of myself, but I will never forget the faces of those animals. They know that a woman humiliated in that way has no other recourse except suicide. They don’t even need to use their weapons. Rape kills her."

"Then they shove me outside, half naked, before the eyes of the village. My shawl draped over my face, I drift like a ghost toward my family’s house. My father and my uncle follow me at a distance."

"For several days, I leave my family’s house only to relieve myself, but I never eat, or cry, or speak. I have made up my mind: I want to kill myself. I will swallow acid and die, to put out forever the fire of shame that torments my family and me. I beg my mother to go buy some acid. My mother bursts into tears, and by staying at my side day and night, she foils my suicide attempt. I can’t sleep, and she won’t let me die. For several days, I go insane with helplessness. Finally, out of nowhere, a surprising fit of anger saves me from that stupor."

"Now it is my turn to seek revenge." End