Today's New York Times has an article by Nicholas Kristof entitled "Raped, Kidnapped and Silenced" about the case of Mukhtaran Bibi, a Pakistani woman's rights activist who has been essentially kidnapped by Pakistani officials to prevent her from coming to the US to do a speaking tour on Women's Rights in Pakistan. I have never heard about her case before; what do you, the readers of IndyMedia, know about it?

Here are a couple of excerpts from Kristof's article:

"June 14, 2005

"New York Times



"Raped, Kidnapped and Silenced

"By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

...

"Last fall I wrote about Mukhtaran Bibi, a woman who was sentenced by a tribal council in Pakistan to be gang-raped because of an infraction supposedly committed by her brother. Four men raped Ms. Mukhtaran, then village leaders forced her to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd of 300.

"Ms. Mukhtaran was supposed to have committed suicide. Instead, with the backing of a local Islamic leader, she fought back and testified against her persecutors. Six were convicted.

"Then Ms. Mukhtaran, who believed that the best way to overcome such abuses was through better education, used her compensation money to start two schools in her village, one for boys and the other for girls...

"Readers of my column sent in more than $133,000 for her. Mercy Corps, a U.S. aid organization, has helped her administer the money, and she has expanded the schools, started a shelter for abused women and bought a van that is used as an ambulance for the area. She has also emerged as a ferocious spokeswoman against honor killings, rapes and acid attacks on women.

...

"A group of Pakistani-Americans invited Ms. Mukhtaran to visit the U.S. starting this Saturday (see www.4anaa.org). Then a few days ago, the Pakistani government went berserk.

"On Thursday, the authorities put Ms. Mukhtaran under house arrest - to stop her from speaking out. In phone conversations in the last few days, she said that when she tried to step outside, police pointed their guns at her. To silence her, the police cut off her land line.

"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.

"Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer who is head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said she had learned that Ms. Mukhtaran was taken to Islamabad, furiously berated and told that President Pervez Musharraf was very angry with her. She was led sobbing to detention at a secret location. She is barred from contacting anyone, including her lawyer.

"She's in their custody, in illegal custody," Ms. Jahangir said. "They have gone completely crazy."

"...[A]irports have been alerted to bar her from leaving the country. According to Dawn, a Karachi newspaper, the government took this step, 'fearing that she might malign Pakistan's image.'"

This sounds like a very important case, no matter what the politics of the sponsoring organizations might be. Any woman who has the courage to campaign against "honor killings", mutilation and punitive gang rape of women in Central Asia, Pakistan and India deserves our support (obviously).

Mukhtaran Bibi is scheduled to speak in New York on 12 July, 2005. Her complete US speaking tour schedule is here:

http://www.4anaa.org/projects/Houston_Brochures.pdf

For more info, see these sites:

http://www.4anaa.org/index.htm

http://www.4anaa.org/projects/mukhtaran-mai.htm

The full text of the Kristof article is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/opinion/14kristof.html?incamp=article_popular

Any further info anyone has on this case would be greatly appreciated. Post your info here, or email me.

Thanks!

Varlet