This story is very significant because traditionally women who have been sexually abused or raped in this country are silenced–one way or another:
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The ruling was a crucial victory in a three-year legal saga that highlighted abuses against women in rural Pakistani society, stirred outrage around the world and, more recently, led the Bush administration to chastise President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the war on terror, for trying to muzzle Mukhtaran and prevent her from traveling to the United States.
Sphere: Related Content…I’m happy for Mukhtaran but unhappy for the state of law in this country, ” said Asma Jahangir, a lawyer who is also the U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief. “This is more a political victory than a legal one.”
Mukhtaran, 31, first came to prominence in 2002, after she was gang-raped in Punjab province on the orders of a village court, which sanctioned the assault as punishment for an illicit sexual affair supposedly committed by her 12-year-old brother, an allegation that turned out to be false. Such punishment of family members, particularly women and other vulnerable people, is not uncommon in rural Pakistan. (more…)
