Nick Kristof wrote a column on Tuesday imploring people to get behind Mukhtaran Bibi; the NY Times editors added their voices to the call on Wednesday:
Mukhtaran Bibi was sentenced by a tribal council to be gang-raped because her younger brother supposedly had relations with a woman from a higher caste. After the rape by four men, she was forced by village leaders to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd.
Ms. Mukhtaran was unbowed. She testified against her persecutors in court, started two schools in her village, established a shelter for abused women and bought a van that is used as an ambulance in the area. She has also spoken out against honor killings, rapes and other attacks on women.
Her guts in daring to oppose the feudalistic elements of rural Pakistani society earned her invitations from all over the world, including from the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Women, which asked her to visit the United States this Saturday. But before she could get here, General Musharraf's government arrested her. Pakistan also released her attackers, who had been in prison since they were convicted of raping her. Pakistani newspapers report that the government, bizarrely, is worried that Ms. Mukhtaran might malign Pakistan's image if she is allowed to go abroad - as if it has not taken care of that rather ably by itself.
This Thursday, the Times (and the AP) report that "Pakistan Lifts Travel Restrictions on Rape Victim". The good guys win!
But not so fast - the BBC has a slightly different story:
Travel ban on rape victim lifted
The Pakistan government has lifted a foreign travel ban on the victim of a high profile gang rape, Mukhtar Mai [aka Mukhtaran Bibi; Googlers take note].
But Ms Mai has told the BBC that her passport has been confiscated so the move is meaningless.
The State Dept. press spokesperson described this case in his opening remarks on Wednesday:
MR. MCCORMACK: Good afternoon, everybody. I have a brief statement to open up with and we'll get right into questions.
The opening statement is with respect to the Mukhtiar Mai case in Pakistan. The United States expects Pakistan's leaders to honor their pledge to protect the basic human rights of their citizens, including the freedom to travel. Mukhtiar Mai met with U.S. Embassy officials today in Islamabad. She is a courageous woman who is a victim of a horrendous crime. Ms. Mai is welcome to travel to the United States at any time. We were confronted with, what I can only say, was an outrageous situation where her attackers were ordered to be freed while she had restrictions on her travel placed on her. We conveyed our views about these restrictions to the senior levels of the Pakistani Government. The Government of Pakistan informed us today that Ms. Mai has been removed from its Exit Control List, permitting her to travel out of Pakistan. We have also advised Pakistani officials that she was invited to the United States by a Pakistani organization based in the U.S.
We presume they do not intend to be mocked.
Ezra Klein has an e-mail list of various Pakistani agencies that are eager to hear from the free world.
And we hope the NY Times editors will push a bit harder before running these reassuring stories.
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