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.
…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…)
