Mukhtar Mai

[justineo]

I have been truly shocked this week reading about the gang rape of Mukhtar Mai. An honour punishment meted out by a Mastoi tribe after accusations made about her 12 yr old brother.  I was totally unaware that this sort of thing happened, even knowing of the terrible oppression many women have to live under. Did anyone else read this story and was anybody else aware of this practice? 

[butter1]

I'm not so up-to-date with the news so I have just looked on google for this.  Very sad, and its terrible that things like that still happen.  At least the men where sentence to prison and she received compensation.  It's good that she spent the money on opening a school.  She must be an amazing young woman. 

[El D]

Apparently oppressing women is acceptable if they are part of a culture which practises it . . .

[Hgrove]

I have known about it for ages.  It is supposedly illegal under Pakistani national law but they don't enforce it and it goes on unchallenged in remote communities.

[Dark Angel]

I have heard of honour punishments, for instance in the book "Princess" by Jean P Sassoon, which is based on fact, there are anecdotes of how women are killed by male members of their own families, because the women had  inappropriate relationships before marriage.

[tali122]

as someone from that region, i would from my experience say it is the exception rather than the rule,punishments for sex crimes are severe- unlike herein the uk where offenders are allowed to evolve into multiple rapists .
most pakistani women i ve seen there are certainly not passive and downtrodden- they give as good as they get and wont tolerate nonsense from a male(a la my missus), they get also preference on public transport and any aspect of daily life where there is an interaction of the sexes
in pakistan i assume they would be shocked that a mother with a child can be stabbed in the neck
also , if the problem was really hidden- then there would be enough apparent "corruption" to suppress the story surely?