quote:

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After she had been detained, a court ordered her attackers released, putting her life in jeopardy. That happened on a Friday afternoon, when the courts do not normally operate, and apparently was a warning to Ms. Mukhtaran to shut up. Instead, Ms. Mukhtaran continued her protests by cellphone. But at dawn yesterday the police bustled her off, and there's been no word from her since. Her cellphone doesn't answer.

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googling "Mukhtaran Mai Kristof" comes up with these hits:
http://tinyurl.com/7ae7e

googling "Mukhtaran Mai" comes up with these hits:
http://tinyurl.com/d22v4

The New York Times
June 21, 2005

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The 11-Year-Old Wife
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

When Pakistan's prime minister visits next month, President Bush will presumably use the occasion to repeat his praise for President Pervez Musharraf as a bold leader "dedicated in the protection of his own people." Then they will sit down and discuss Mr. Bush's plan to sell Pakistan F-16 fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

But here's a suggestion: How about the White House dropping word that before the prime minister arrives, he first return the passport of Mukhtaran Bibi, the rape victim turned human-rights campaigner, so that she can visit the United States?

Despite Mr. Bush's praise, General Musharraf shows more commitment to his F-16's than to his people. Now he's paying the price. Visiting New Zealand the last few days, he was battered by questions about why he persecuted a rape victim, forcing him to cancel interviews.

Pakistani newspapers savaged him for harming Pakistan's image. And the blogosphere has taken up Ms. Mukhtaran's case, with more than 100 blogs stirring netizens to send blizzards of e-mails to Pakistani consulates or to join protests planned for Wednesday and Thursday at Pakistani offices in New York and Washington. ....

On average, a woman is raped every two hours in Pakistan, and two women a day die in honor killings. ...

... Pakistan's hudood laws, which have been used to imprison thousands of women who report rapes. If rape victims cannot provide four male witnesses to the crime, they risk being whipped for adultery, since they acknowledge illicit sex and cannot prove rape. ...

Resources

For more information about some of these issues, including the planned demonstrations outside Pakistani offices this week, see www.4anaa.org/projects/mukhtaran-mai.htm. That's on the Web site of the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Women, run by a group of Pakistani doctors, and it's also the group that is arranging her visit to the U.S. To help Mukhtaran, don't send checks to me. Instead, you can find out about contributing at www.mercycorps.org .

To find out more about repealing hudood ordinances, go to the Lawyers for Human Rights & Legal Aid Web site and equalitynow.org. There is also a blogosphere's campaign for Mukhtaran.

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Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/opinion/21kristof.html?incamp=article_popular&pagewanted=print

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quote:

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Canada offers haven for gang rape victim ...

The type of court that sentenced Mai, known as a panchiat court, is not at all uncommon in rural Pakistan and her punishment, known as karo kari, is not the norm but neither is it unheard of – more than 150 Pakistani women were raped by order of panchiat courts in the first half of 2004. ...

Fearing that Pakistan‘s reputation would be hurt further if Mai were to suffer any retribution in her village, the government also offered to buy her a home in cosmopolitan Islamabad, where she would live a life of relative luxury in a place where no one knew anything about her past.

Mai declined those offers. Instead of leaving, she took the money and used it to start a school for girls in Meerwala, the village‘s first.

At this school, Mai and her friends work to provide young girls with the knowledge and understanding that will give them more power in the world, more awareness of their rights, and more dignity to fall back on when those rights are challenged. ...

Sources told The Asian Pacific Post that Mai was offered Canadian citizenship recently by [Canadian High Commissioner] Huber after her case took a depressing turn on two fronts. ...

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http://www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/455.html

I sure hope the last sentence is true.

Yet another google search came up with some other hits:
http://tinyurl.com/cn7ph

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhtaran_Bibi

A gazillion of links can be found here:
http://www.4anaa.org/projects/mukhtaran-mai.htm