An amazing story of Pakistani gov't retribution against woman

[housewolf]

From Laura Rosen's War and Piece blog. Read the whole piece to see why the Pakistani gov't believes it can treat people this way.



Last fall I wrote about Mukhtaran Bibi, a woman who was sentenced by a tribal council in Pakistan to be gang-raped because of an infraction supposedly committed by her brother. Four men raped Ms. Mukhtaran, then village leaders forced her to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd of 300. Ms. Mukhtaran was supposed to have committed suicide. Instead, with the backing of a local Islamic leader, she fought back and testified against her persecutors. Six were convicted.

Then Ms. Mukhtaran, who believed that the best way to overcome such abuses was through better education, used her compensation money to start two schools in her village, one for boys and the other for girls. She went out of her way to enroll the children of her attackers in the schools, showing that she bore no grudges.

<snip>

A group of Pakistani-Americans invited Ms. Mukhtaran to visit the U.S. starting this Saturday (see www.4anaa.org). Then a few days ago, the Pakistani government went berserk.

<snip>

at dawn yesterday the police bustled her off, and there's been no word from her since. Her cellphone doesn't answer. Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer who is head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said she had learned that Ms. Mukhtaran was taken to Islamabad, furiously berated and told that President Pervez Musharraf was very angry with her. She was led sobbing to detention at a secret location. She is barred from contacting anyone, including her lawyer.

"She's in their custody, in illegal custody," Ms. Jahangir said. "They have gone completely crazy." Even if Ms. Mukhtaran were released, airports have been alerted to bar her from leaving the country.

<snip>

Call the State Department and your Congressmen and Senators (the House International Relations committee is a good place to start) and say the US should stop selling F-16s to Pakistan until this brave woman is given a freaking ambassadorship or ministerial position.

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http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002157.html