About EqualiTy Now
Women's Action Network
Equality Now Campaigns
Women's Action NetworkCampaign Against FGMCampaign Against
Sex Tourism/TraffickingProtocol on the Rightsof Women in AfricaUnited NationsThe LAW ProjectWomen,
Peace and SecurityAdolescent
Girls' LegalDefense
FundBeijing +15 CampaignJoin
the Women's Action NetworkSupport Equality NowMembership ProfileGuide to ActivismInternships/EmploymentPress Room
Events
Merchandise
Contact Equality Now
Join us on Facebook
The Case of Mukhtaran Mai
The highly-publicized rape case of Mukhtaran Mai, also referred to as Mukhtar Mai or Mukhtaran Bibi, highlights the Pakistani government’s shortcomings in dealing with violence against women and its persecution of rape victims.
In 2002, Mukhtaran was sentenced to be gang raped by a tribal council in Punjab province as punishment for her younger brother’s alleged affair with a woman from a powerful clan. After the initial trial, six men were sentenced to death for the gang rape, while eight others were acquitted. However, last June, the Punjab High Court overturned five of the convictions and reduced the sixth to a life sentence.
Mukhtaran Mai received donations adding up to $160,000 from New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff’s coverage of the case. Mukhtaran has used the money to open two schools in her village, a shelter for abused women and provide her village with an ambulance. When Mukhtaran was invited to the United States to talk about her case, the Pakistani government—fearing that she would malign the country’s image abroad—denied her a travel visa to the United States, and placed her under house arrest. Only following great international attention and pressure was the travel ban lifted.
While Pakistan’s High Court suspended the acquittals of Mukhtaran’s rapists and will be re-examining the case, the government’s lassitude in amending the Hudood Ordinances—which place insurmountable obstacles for women to safely and successfully obtain justice in their rape cases—foments an environment in which violence is perpetrated against women with virtual impunity. If women are unable to prove rape under the Hudood law, which requires four adult Muslim males to have witnessed the crime or the confession of the rapist himself, then the victims themselves may be tried for adultery or fornication.
The government of Pakistan must ensure justice in the case of Mukhtaran Mai. In addition, it should take immediate steps to ensure the repeal or amendment of the Hudood Ordinances. Removal of the discrimination against women in the Ordinances to provide women who have been raped equality before the law and equal protection under the law would be in accordance with Pakistan’s own Constitution and its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). For more information on this issue, see Equality Now’s Women’s Action Pakistan: Denial of Justice for Rape the Case of Shazia Khalid.
|
Women and
girls around the world need your help.
|
|