A Pakistani woman who was gang-raped on the orders of a village court but went on to challenge her attackers and win international respect for her bravery, has now married.
The brutal realities of rural Pakistan mean that many who suffer Mukhtar Mai’s ordeal commit suicide, but she decided to campaign on behalf of oppressed women and open a school for girls.
On March 15 she surprised the world by marrying a police officer who investigated her case and acted as a bodyguard.
PHOTO: EPA
In an interview last week in her remote home village of Meerwala, Punjab Province, the 37-year-old said that the constable, Nasir Abbas Gabol, had flirted with her even while he was protecting her.
“He offered to marry me but I flatly refused,” she said.
It was only after Gabol, 30, apparently infatuated with her, threatened to kill himself if she did not agree, that she relented. He was already married and Mai was reluctant to trespass on his existing marriage, agreeing finally to become his second wife after the first wife also implored her.
“I would adjust [to marriage] because the co-wife is very positive,” she said. “Every woman feels a strange joy on getting marriage which cannot be explained, [but] this was very difficult for me.”
The nightmare began for Mai in 2002 when her teenage brother was accused of having an affair with a girl from another tribe, the Mastoi Baloch, which had higher social standing than her own.
Her brother was captured, beaten and sodomized by men from the Mastoi Baloch.
But, not satisfied by this, a traditional village court ordered that Mukhtar Mai be gang-raped as punishment. Four men dragged her into a barn and raped her.
Mai said she still received threats from local “influential people and landlords” to drop the charges and police still guard her.
She was awarded around US$8,000 in 2002 by the government, which she used to start the first primary school for girls in the village. She also began a group to campaign for women’s rights.
Mai insisted that marriage would not change her mission and she would continue to live with her parents, not move into Gabol’s village.
“I cannot betray my cause of giving the rights to oppressed women in the society facing all sorts of violence,” she said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS