Her Courage Open the Eyes of the World..

If I refresh my memory to remarkable incident that happened in the year 2002, I would definitely connect it with the case of a 30 years old Pakistani woman, named Mukhtaran Mai. I can’t imagine anything close to what happened to her but her courage to pursue, voice it out and stand her feet is what I look up to. It had been a decade ago but the extraordinary courage of this woman will live on forever.

Mukhtaran Mai, now only known as Mukhtar Mai

Mukhtaran Mai is from the village of Meerwala in Muzaffargarh District of Pakistan. She was gang raped by 14 men in a stable as ‘honour revenge’ by the order of a tribal council from another clan which is richer than her clan. Can you believe that!! How is the life of typical women in this country? Can they even say their mind? Do they even have the chance to dream on? What the f**k is an ‘honour revenge’ in the first place! The clan that punished her is the Mastoi clan.

What happened to her wasn’t even resulted from what she did. It was because of her 12 years old adolescence brother Shakoor who was judged to offend a clan’s honour because he was having an illicit sex with a woman name Salma from the Mastoi clan. Bizarre isn’t it? Punished with a severe punishment because of what you don’t even know about. For more information, Shakoor had been abducted and sodomized by three men of the Mastoi clan (which one of them is the elder brother of Salma) in a sugarcane field. Isn’t that harsh enough!!

After some negotiation between the clans, the Tatla (Mukhtaran’s clan) and the Mastoi, they initially agreed on marrying Shakoor to Salma and also marry Mukhtaran to one of the Mastoi men and if indeed Shakoor was found guilty, Mukhtaran family will give some land to Salma’s family. However, there are defendants who disagreed as they behold on the principle of an eye-for-an eye which mean an illicit sex must be settle with an illicit sex too.

The Mastoi men came to Mukhtaran family and said if she would come personally to apologize from Salma’s family and the Mastoi akath they will accept the proposed settlement. Then she went there with her father and a maternal uncle to apologize personally, the Mastoi stated that the dispute is now settled and Mukhtaran’s family been forgiven but before she even know it, the whole ordeal begun!

Abdul Khaliq, the elder brother of Salma (who also allegedly sodomized Shakoor) came and armed with a pistol forcibly took Mukhtaran into a stable. That’s where she was gang raped by fourteen men. After about an hour inside, she was then pushed outside wearing only a torn shirt. By making her an example for not defying the local authorities, they paraded her naked in front of hundreds of onlookers on the order of Jirga (the assembly of clan elders). This is not human act.

The custom would expect her to commit suicide after a rape but instead of committing suicide, she pursued the case and seeking for fair judgement for what happened to her. Her bravery to stand up for herself picked up domestic and international media’s coverage. Her story had been headlines of news that even BBC picked up on her story. Although the safety of herself, her families and friends has been endangered, she remains strong as an outspoken advocate for women’s right. She knew she got to do something to voice out what and how is the life of real women in her country. She is now known as Mukhtar Mai.

She then started the Mukhtar Mai Women’s Welfare Organization (MMWWO) to help support and educate Pakistani women and girls. In 2005, the Glamour Magazine named her Women of the Year and in April 2007, she won the North-South Prize from the Council of Europe. Movies were made about her and her autobiography reached no. 3 bestseller in France. Her courage should be cherishes. Without her bravely told her story, not much we will know about the misery of women there.