|
Pakistani gang-rape victim seeks protection
March 6, 2005
Multan — A woman who drew international attention after being gang-raped in
Pakistan in a retaliatory "honour" attack said Saturday she is fearful after
several of the alleged perpetrators were ordered released from prison.
Mukhtar Mai in June 2002 was raped by four men on the orders of a village
council that wanted to punish her family.
The assault was ordered after Mai's brother was accused of having sex with a
woman from a more prominent family, though Mai's family says the allegations
were fabricated to cover up a sex assault against the boy by several men.
Mai's story captured global attention and prompted President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf to order the arrest of the culprits. Within days six men were behind
bars, and a judge sentenced them to death after finding them guilty.
On Thursday, however, an appeals court in Multan in Pakistan's eastern Punjab
province ordered the release of five of the men because of a lack of evidence.
The other had his death sentence reduced to life in prison.
While the five have yet to be released, Mai said she won't be safe in her
village of Meerwala — 350 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad — where the
crime took place.
"I fear that those who were awarded death sentences can take any step after
their release," a tearful Mai told The Associated Press, urging the government
to provide her protection. Mai, a 33-year-old school teacher, said she would
not leave her village and vowed to appeal the court's decision.
"I will fight a legal battle to death. I want all those people who molested me
hanged," she said.
Mai is from the Gujar clan. The attackers were from a clan considered socially
higher, called Mastoi.
She denied her 13-year-old brother Abdul Shakoor had relations with the Mastoi
woman, saying the clan fabricated the story to cover up another incident, in
which her brother was allegedly sexually assaulted by Mastoi men.
Mai said she cannot forget what happened on June 22, 2002, when they came to
her house and accused Shakoor. Hours later, a village council summoned her
father.
"I was worried about my brother, so I went there to see the proceedings," she
said. "My father was defending Shakoor when a man caught me and started taking
me to a house. I cried and asked for help. Some armed men caught my father.
Later, four men took turns raping me and then threw me out of that house."
She said she would never forgive the people who saw her being dragged away but
did nothing to help. "I heard laughter, and weeping there helplessly was only
one man — my father," she said.
Also Saturday, Mai told a news conference in Islamabad that she had asked her
lawyer to challenge the court verdict in Supreme Court of Pakistan. "My case is
not only in Pakistan court, but also in the court of God," she said.
"I hope that the Supreme Court of Pakistan will give me justice," Mai said.
Associated Press
Comment on this story,
click here.
Copyright 1999-2004, AsianSexGazette.com. All rights reserved. No
content may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission.
Please contact us via the link below for re-print and syndication policies.
|
|
Doctor's
rape sparks unrest in Pakistan
3-1-2005
Pakistani
students gang rape principal's wife
2-9-2005
|
