Mukhtar Mai

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Mukhtaran has challenged a local tribal council's alleged injustice

Mukhtaran Bibi (* 1972 - ) ist eine Angehörige des Tatla-Clans aus Pakistan aus dem kleinen und verarmten Dorf Meerwala, welches in dem ländlichen Gebiet des Weilers tehsil im Distrikt Jatoi im Muzaffargarh District Pakistans liegt. Sie ist auch unter dem Namen Mukhtar Mai, Mukhtiar oder einfach Mukhtaran bekannt; sie wurde auf Verlangen des Dorfältestenrats gruppenvergewaltigt als Rache für ein angebliches Vergehen eihres kleinen Bruders. Tatsächlich war dieser aber vom einflussreichen Clan der Mastoi gruppenvergewaltigt worden, und entgegen der "Etikette" hat die Familie die Vergewaltiger des Jungen angzeigt. Zur Strafe wurde Mukhtaran Bibi daraufhin gruppenvergewaltigt.

Fruchtlos hat M. daraufhin ihre Vergewaltiger angezeigt, die daraufhin auch bestraft wurden, aber im Reviesionsprozess wieder - bis auf einen - freigesprochen wurden. Der Fall ist - nach einer weiteren Appellation - hängig und erfährt zunehmend öffentliches Interesse, weswegen sich der pakistanische Staatschef im Juni 2005 genötigt sah, mit den Worten einzugreifen, dies sei ein Einzelfall.

[mehr überarbeite ich morgen. Muss eben mein Bébé stillen gehen...]

After the conviction of her attackers, Mukhtaran became a symbol for advocates for the health and security of women in her region, attracting both national and international attention to these issues. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf awarded Mukhtaran a financial settlement of Rs.500,000 (about US$8000) which she used to build two local schools, one for girls and another for boys. Some Western donors have also come forward with contributions.

There is a great deal of variance in the news accounts of the rape incident. The account that follows is therefore based on the testimonies of witnesses in the court that sentenced Mukhtaran's rapists to death, supplemented with details from the text of the Lahore High Court judgment.

Summary of the story, based on the court record

Mukhtaran testified that in June 2002 her adolescent brother Shakoor was suspected and accused by the Mastoi of committing ziadti (rape, sodomy or illegal sex) or zina (fornication or adultery) with a Mastoi girl, Salma, also known as Nasim. This accusation was almost certainly false (and at the trial court, the judge commented that the accusation was unsupported.)

Saturday afternoon, June 22, 2002

Early in the afternoon of Saturday, 22 June 2002, Shakoor was abducted by three Mastoi men. He was taken that afternoon to the residence of the main defendant, Abdul Khaliq, Salma's brother. (Shakoor testified that he had been abducted by three Mastoi men, each of whom sodomized him in a sugarcane field. The court determined, based on a doctor's testimony, that Shakoor had indeed been sodomized.)

Shakoor had shouted for help while being taken into Abdul Khaliq's house, and his relatives heard his cries. Mukhtaran, her mother, and other women of the house rushed outside, where several Mastoi men told them that Shakoor had committed ziadti with Salma. The women went immediately to Abdul Khaliq's house to demand his release, but Abdul Khaliq refused. Mukhtaran's mother then sent her brother to get the police. There were no telephones or police in Meerwala, and the Jatoi police station was 13 km to the south over dirt roads.

Mukhtaran's clan, the Tatla, gathered together in an akath (small crowd or gathering). They were told that their kinsman Shakoor had been held by the Mastoi because he had been accused of committing ziadti or zina with Salma.

Separately, a Mastoi akath of about 200 to 250 Mastoi gathered outdoors, less than a hundred meters from Abdul Khaliq's house. According to some accounts, a Mastoi tribal council formed, consisting of three defendants: Ramzan Pachar, G.F. Mastoi and a Mastoi clan chief, Faiz M. Mastoi, also known as Faiza or Faizan. The akath was told that Shakoor had committed ziadti with Salma.

The police arrived before sunset, freed Shakoor from the Mastoi, and took him to a police station and held him, pending a possible sex-crime charge against him.

Nightfall

Sunset was at 7:20 PM that day, and twilight lasted until about 7:48 PM. With no electricity, darkness set in. (At the High Court trial, the defense contended that prosecution witnesses could not have seen some of the things that they had claimed to see.)

Mukhtaran's family proposed to settle the matter with the Mastoi by marrying Shakoor to Salma, and marrying Mukhtaran to one of the Mastoi men, and - if Shakoor was found to be at fault - to give some land to Salma's family. This proposal was conveyed to Faizan, the Mastoi elder. According to some of the prosecution witnesses, Faizan was initially agreeable, but two men of Salma's family - defendants Ramzan Pachar and G.F. Mastoi - refused and demanded revenge of zina for zina. Some other Mastoi men allegedly joined them in this demand.

Ramzan Pachar and G.F. Mastoi then came to Mukhtaran's family, and told them that the Mastoi would accept the proposed settlement if she would personally come and apologize to Salma's family and the Mastoi akath. She went to the akath with her father and maternal uncle.

Addressing the akath, which had been dispersing and by this time had dwindled to about 70 people, Faizan stated that the dispute was settled and Mukhtaran's family should be "forgiven."

The alleged rape, according to the prosecution

Immediately afterward and less than a hundred meters from the akath, Abdul Khaliq, armed with a 30-caliber pistol, forcibly took Mukhtaran inside into a dark room with a dirt floor, where he, G.F. Mastoi and two other defendants raped her. Her father and uncle were kept from saving her, and were kept outside, by Mastoi men. (A deposition by Dr. Shahida Safdar, who medically examined Mukhtaran on 30 June, nine days after the alleged rape, stated that she found two healed abrasions on the victim, 1.5 cm x 0.5 cm and 3 cm x 1 cm. She also took swabs that were found to be stained with semen. No semen was found on the clothes, however, as Mukhtaran's sister had washed them.)

After about an hour inside, she was pushed outside wearing only a torn qameez (long shirt). The rest of her clothes were thrown out with her. Her father covered her up and took her home. (The clothes were presented as evidence in court.)

That same night, the police were informed that the two clans had settled their dispute, and that Salma's family was withdrawing its complaint against Shakoor. His uncle retrieved him from the police station around 2 or 3 A.M.

The following week

A local Muslim imam (mosque prayer leader), Moulvi Abdul Razzaq, condemned the rape in his sermon on the Friday after it occurred. He brought a local journalist, Mureed Abbas, to meet Mukhtaran's father, and persuaded the family to file charges against the rapists.

Mukhtaran and her family went to the Jatoi police station on 30 June to file charges.

Media coverage

In the next few days, the story became headline news in Pakistan, and remained so for months. Many versions of the story were reported in the days that followed, and variances persist to this day.

By 3 July, the BBC had picked up on the story. Time magazine ran a story on the case in mid-July. Major international newspapers and networks reported on developments in the case.

Court verdicts

Mukhtaran's attackers, and the Mastoi of the so-called panchayat that conspired in her rape, were sentenced to death by the Dera Ghazi Khan anti-terrorist court. An anti-terrorist court is a type of court in Pakistan that specializes in prosecuting cases related to terror or mass intimidation. Anti-terrorist courts in Pakistan have been criticized by human rights organizations for having lower standards of proof and evidence than regular courts; such courts do not require proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and also admit hearsay as evidence. The venue was ruled appropriate in this case because the Mastoi had intimidated and terrorized (and continue to threaten) Mukhtaran's clan and the people of the area. The court convicted six men and sentenced them to death on 31 August 2002.

On 3 March 2005 five of the six men sentenced to death were acquitted on appeal by the Lahore High Court, the highest court of the Punjab province. The Pakistan government decided to appeal the acquittal, and Mukhtaran asked the court not to order the release of the five men, who then remained in detention under a law that allows for a 90-day detention without charges.

Aitzaz Ahsan, a top lawyer and politician belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party, has been representing Mukhtaran pro bono.

Recent developments

The Lahore high court ruled on 10 June 2005 that the rapists must be released. Just over two weeks later the supreme court suspended those acquittals and ruled that the men, along with six more who were acquitted at the original trial, would be retried. [1]

Also on 10 June 2005, shortly before she was scheduled to fly to London on the invitation of Amnesty International, Mukhtaran was put on Pakistan's Exit-Control List (ECL) [2], a list of people prohibited from traveling abroad, a move that prompted protest in Pakistan and around the world.

On 17 June 2005, Musharraf in a press conference in Auckland, New Zealand revealed that he had ordered the travel ban to protect Pakistan's image abroad.

Musharraf said Mukhtaran Mai was being taken to the United States by foreign non-government organisations ("NGOs") "to bad-mouth Pakistan" over the "terrible state" of the nation's women. He said NGOs are "Westernised fringe elements" which "are as bad as the Islamic extremists". [3]

On 15 June 2005, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered Mukhtaran's name removed from the ECL (Mukhtaran allowed to go abroad, NA told). However, it was reported on 19 June 2005, by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, that as Mai returned from the US embassy in Islamabad, after getting her passport stamped with a US visa, it was confiscated once again, rendering her unable to travel outside the country [4].

On 29 June 2005, on his personal web site [5] Musharraf wrote that "Mukhtaran Mai is free to go wherever she pleases, meet whoever she wants and say whatever she pleases."

Mukhtar Mai

Summary of the story, based on the court record

Saturday afternoon, June 22, 2002

Nightfall

The alleged rape, according to the prosecution

The following week

Media coverage

Court verdicts

Recent developments

External links

Interviews, etc.

News stories

Commentary

Web site

Text of court judgments

See also