Mukhtaran Mai takes her case to US Congress

03 Nov, 2005

An illiterate Pakistani woman whose gang rape triggered an international outcry took her case to the US Congress on Tuesday, saying she feared for her life. "There are efforts to suppress my voice at every level," Mukhtaran Mai said in a soft voice through an interpreter at a congressional hearing.
"The Government of Pakistan tries to harass me using various means. Police officers who try to support me are pressurised and transferred out of the area," Mukhtaran Mai said she was gang-raped on the orders of a tribal council in 2002 as punishment for her brother's alleged love affair with a woman from another tribe.
The case and the 33-year-old Mukhtaran 's high-profile quest to bring her rapists to justice garnered extensive international attention, much to the embarrassment of the Pakistani authorities.
She will receive a Woman of the Year prize from Glamour magazine on Wednesday at a ceremony in New York.
"I am the voice of those Pakistani women who need you to stand behind them in their fight for justice," she told US legislators as she related "my appalling story".
"I have raised a voice against oppression, and I have faced various obstacles," she said, adding that she and her family "fear for their life".
Texas Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee commended Mukhtaran Mai for "her bravery", while her party mate Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky said women in the United States "being more privileged, have an obligation to take a leadership role in addressing the oppression and violence" facing foreign women.
T. Kumar, Amnesty International's advocacy director in Washington, said Mukhtaran Mai was not only expressing her grief, but that of "thousands of women around the world who are suffering in silence today.
"Her case and the way, in which the Pakistan government shamelessly acted by putting her under house arrest, has woken up the world and the United States," he said.
In June, Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered re-arrest of 13 men linked to her case and suspended their acquittals by the lower courts.
The same month, Mukhtaran Mai had been invited to the United States to address a human rights group, but was barred from travelling by President Pervez Musharraf who argued that the visit would damage the country's image overseas. The travel ban was later rescinded after intense criticism from, among others, US officials.
Musharraf came under additional fire in September when he suggested to a US newspaper that some women viewed being raped as a way to acquire a foreign visa.
Glamour magazine said Mukhtaran Mai was being honoured for "her incredible courage and optimism in the face of terrible violence".

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