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Posts tagged with: rape

A predominant, ‘one-sex’ nation!

You can never really expect a ‘good’ morning in Pakistan.

After waking up from the sleep last morning, I logged into my facebook account to just get a daily dose of news updates. As I scrolled down my home page, a link shared by a friend caught my eyes that completely bewildered me. The news headline read, “Pakistan ranked as THIRD most dangerous country in the world for women.” I tried to ignore the news ‘labelling’ it a false, rumor story but then I thought to undergo a process of research and thinking on the it.

The process that I did was just a track down of past few years of Pakistan where extremism, radicalization and terrorism had dominated the image of the nation, and where poor-stricken and underprivileged women were often seen as innocent victims of the disease of extremism and terrorism. I recalled how women in Pakistan are just not ‘equally’ treated like men; how they are deprived of their basic rights to live with freedom – free from all sorts of impositions; how they are less accessible to education; how they are less accessible to different sectors in Pakistan when it comes to employment; and how they are treated when what they do is just ‘defend’ their rights or ‘voice’ their concerns.
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Mukhtara Mai Rejects the WikiLeaks Cable – Huzoor Bakhsh Kharos is NOT her Brother

On 13th June Dawn released WikiLeaks cables from the US Embassy in Islamabad in 2006 in which US Ambassador Ryan Crocker raising Suspicions of Mukhtaran Mai involvement in panchayat rulings against local girls

WIKILEAK CABLE: Mukhtaran’s brother Hazoor Bakhsh convened a panchayat (traditional court) to review the case of a nine-year old girl xxx who had been raped by three local individuals. According to civil society activists, Mai had urged her brother to deal with the case through a panchayat rather than the formal legal system, arguing that the courts would not properly deal with the rapists. At the panchayat, Bakhsh utilized his position and authority to order that the fifteen year old sister of one of the rapists, Faizan, be handed over in marriage to rape victim’s xxx father, Rasool Bakhsh, as compensation. Rasool tortured Faizan who was rescued by her father and brother one day after her marriage.

Civil society groups claimed that during the same panchayat, Hazoor Bakhsh, issued an order acquiting five people from a neighboring village of the kidnap and rape of two sisters xxx. Sources claim that despite promising the sister’s justice at the panchayat, Hazoor Bakhsh took a Rs. 60,000 (approximately $1000) bribe for their acquittal and ruled against the sisters — effectively finding them guilty of illicit sexual relations.

It seems that there are TWO Hazoor Bakhsh’s in the area one belongs to the Kharos tribe and is better known as Hazoor Bakhsh Kharos while Mukhtara Mai and her brother belong to the Gujjar tribe and her brother should best be recognzied as Hazoor Bakhsh Gujjar.

I’d like everyone to read the email circulated by Mukhtar Mai Women Welfare Organization which would clarify all confusions …..
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Solidarity with Mukhtar Mai at 4PM today at Karachi Press Club

In wake of the Mukhtar Mai verdict, citizens in collaboration with War Against Rape (WAR), Aurat Foundation (AF), Womens Action Forum (WAF) and other like-minded organizations are holding a press conference on Tuesday April 26th, at the Karachi Press Club at 5pm. Members from the legal fraternity, women’s groups, human rights activists and citizens are coming together to express their solidarity with Mukhtar Mai and discuss the verdict, its repercussions, weaknesses in law and procedures dealing with rape, the disintegration of the criminal justice system and the role of state and non-state actors in furthering it. Please attend.

Date: Tuesday 26th April, 2011
Time: 4 PM
Location: Karachi Press Club

Speakers:

  • Iqbal Haider, Advocate Supreme Court and former Sentaor
  • Anwar Mansoor, President Sindh High Court Bar and former Attorney General, Pakistan
  • Akmal Wasim, Associate Professor of Law, Hamdard School of Law, and former criminal lawyer
  • Sarah Zaman, Director, War Against Rape (WAR)
  • Nuzhat Kidvai– Womens Action Forum (WAF)

DAWN Publishes a Picture of an Underage Rape Victim and Apologizes

I do not know if any of you noticed yesterdays Dawn newspaper [27th March] page 4 – which showed a picture of a 17-year old [underage] Tharparker rape victim. Its possible many may be aware of her, a local political leader from Tharparker had gang raped her on 24th January and since then she has been screaming for justice, this case has become the talk of the town in Interior Sindh but has failed to capture the fascination of the nationwide electronic and print media. Dawn did in some may have tried to help bring attention to the cause but it went a bit overboard, choosing to publish her picture and name sitting in front of Hyderabad Press Club – practically raping her all over again, and now in public – instead of protecting her even more, they go all out publishing her name and picture but did not so much as even bother to publish the name of the political leader who gang raped her in Tharparker

The issue at Dawn seemingly continues to get worse barely a month back I protested Dawn Raping the Rape Victim where they explicitly named the 20-yr old Daweoo rape victim along with some explicit details on how the rape was done, my argument even then was that if the victim had the courage to come forth to the media, they have taken a very bold step choosing to stand up against their perpetrators publicly, it is mostly seen as a last ditch effort to get some justice from an heinously skewed system that protects the powerful, and when they do, newspapers and the electronic media exploit the victim by publishing explicit details and in a way not actually helping bring the perpetrators to justice.
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DAWN Raping the Rape Victim

Much out cry has been heard regarding the Daewoo rape incident which has lead many human rights organizations working hand-in-hand with the police to hopefully arrest the perpetrators – but today I was shocked to read in Dawn (10th Feb 2010 – Page 9) while discussing the story – the “correspondent” very casually mentions the name of the victim with such intricate details of the crime that it seems as if he might actually be quoting the actual FIR verbatim

“SIALKOT, Feb 9: Police have yet to arrest the second alleged rapist in the kidnap-cum-rape case of a bus hostess here in Sialkot, Dawn has learnt. Daewoo bus hostess A**** Q**** [censorship added] alleged that Irshad Bhatti, of Gujrat, along with Sarfraz allegedly kidnapped her late on Saturday and raped her. ” link

I do not know if the victim has come forth with permission allowing the Dawn correspondent to publicly use her name so explicitly and repeatedly so many times through out the column that it infuriates me -she has suffered enough of this heinous crime that it alone will take many years for her to recuperate the rape trauma – now adding fuel to the fire the public record and everyone even remotely associated with this 20-yr old girl will always brandish her name quickly linking her with the Daweeo rape victim – the pain which she will go through emotionally and physically is now going to be quadrupled to unimaginable proportions as she now will also tainted in the public eye too
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