'It is a shameful act of cruelty against a woman,' said Talat Ali, a senior
police official in Punjab.'
The 32-year-old woman told police her feet were chopped off on 24 June by her
husband, her father-in-law, a brother-in-law and two others after they accused
her of being 'of bad character', a euphemism for promiscuous.
Violence against women is common in rural Pakistan where tribal and feudal
customs hold sway.
The latest incident occurred in central Punjab province where the 2002
gang-rape of a woman, Mukhtaran Mai, on the orders of a village council,
triggered an international outcry.
Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, who is trying to project his country as a
moderate Muslim nation, has condemned violence against women.
The woman in the latest incident had separated from her husband but had gone to
his family's house to see her daughter, police said.
Her father-in-law chained her up and that night he and the others took her to
the edge of their village and cut off her feet.
Two days later her parents reported her missing and police raided the house,
found her and took her to hospital, where she remains.
'There is no evidence that she was of bad character,' Ali said.
The Observer
