It’s time the authorities reviewed the laws that are clearly discriminatory to women
IN the sweltering heat of Multan in June of 2002, members of the influential local tribe of Mastoi sexually abused a boy and then plotted another vile crime as cover-up. They accused the boy of having an affair with a high-status woman of their tribe. The local panchayat [tribal council] congregated — as per the tribe’s wishes — and determined a ‘suitable’ punishment for the boy and his alleged crime. It was decided that to avenge the shame of the ‘respected’ tribe, some ‘high status’ men would rape one of the boy’s sisters.
And the jirga picked Mukhtaran Mai, the boy’s sister, as the gang-rape ‘candidate’. Thus, the fate of a woman was determined at the hands of a few sub-human creatures.
Eye witnesses documented that while some Mastoi members danced in joy at the ‘retribution ceremony’, four men stripped her naked and took turns, raping her in front of other people of the clan. They then forced her to walk home naked in front of 300 villagers.
With the initial crime already subverted, and the culprits made bold after sanction of their beastly tactics by a so-called legal body, they feared no punishment. Instead, they awaited the obvious course which their victim ‘should have’ taken. Suicide. A girl who is raped has no right to live. She will kill herself and that will be the end of the matter. And that is just what Mukhtaran thought of doing at first.
After all, the girl in the next village who was gang-raped a week after Mukhtaran, duly took the traditional route, swallowed a bottle of pesticide and died. But realizing the futility of suicide, she took a step which was far away from the culprit’s mind. Mukhtaran testified against her attackers and gave a shocking statement that the shame lies in raping, not in being raped.
And thus her news hit headlines, becoming a tale of courage rather than another obscure statistic. With international focus turned on her, it was only prudent that the government give her support, and so President Pervez Musharraf presented Mukhtaran with Rs500,000 and ordered round-the-clock police protection. And Mukhtaran, who had already begun to show more grit than anyone had imagined, used the money to build a school in the village for girls and another for boys. She was aiming for a ‘social change’. Though the government, feeling it had ‘done enough’, left her to struggle with the upkeep of the school, her life was at least out of danger as her offenders were behind bars, pending death row.
But it came as a severe blow when the relevant court acquitted five of the six accused sentenced to death [from the initial 14 tried for murder] on grounds of insufficient evidence.
The village panchayat had ordered the rape in a ‘public hearing’, and there wasn’t sufficient evidence.
Half the villagers looked on while four men lecherously defiled a helpless woman and there wasn’t sufficient evidence.
A bruised and naked woman dragged herself home in front of the other half of the villagers, and there wasn’t sufficient evidence.
The defence for the accused, now revelling in his clients’ acquittal, has stated that the case was ‘blown out of proportion’. It said that the NGOs got a lot of benefit by playing up the scandal, adding that last year as many as 540 women were molested or raped, 24 burnt by acid, 634 abducted and 115 were killed on one pretext or the other in southern Punjab, but not a single case got as much projection as Mukhtaran Mai’s. Is the counsel implying it would have been in the best interest of all if this case too had just remained another number on the list of ‘rapes’?
History has recorded many sordid episodes, which tell the tale of victimization of women with little or no means. Some of the most mentioned cases include a 13-year-old girl’s tale who was raped and made pregnant by an uncle and his son, and sentenced to a 100 lashes, which were later reduced to 15 because of her age. That was in 1980. In May 2002 — just before Mukhtaran’s rape — the case of Zafran Bibi from Kohat made international headlines.
The infamous Hudood Ordinance and its various implications resurfaced at the time. As per the discriminatory Hudood law, Zafran Bibi was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in a case, which was initially reported by her as rape committed by a neighbour. Used by her relatives to avenge a family feud, she suffered several weeks of solitary confinement in a death cell of the Kohat jail, where she nursed her newborn baby.
The power that the Hudood Ordinance gave to landed gentry prevails to this day.
In 1979, when General Ziaul Haq validated the Hudood Ordinance, it was termed ‘the most abused law in the legal history of the country’. But somehow, since the post-Zia days, whenever the issue of its repeal has come under discussion, bigoted passion and inability to engage in a rational dialogue have let it remain an ignoble thorn in our justice system.
The Shariat courts, which came into existence soon after the ordinance, made their presence felt and became a tool of extortion for landowners. With outlines that equated rape with zina, persecution was unleashed in every way and land disputes and other scores were settled by raping the enemy’s women.
The western press has maliciously sensationalized our ‘pagan’ customs saying, ‘Pakistan’s archaic legal system, a mix of secular and Islamic codes, offers little protection for women.’ Incidentally, President Musharraf too was caught on the back foot in Zafran Bibi’s case and the Hudood laws. To a question raised by a foreign journalist he replied; “Is that the law? Now? I don’t even know.” And to a question whether he planned to reform adultery laws, he replied: “Frankly, I haven’t given it such deep thought, let me admit.”
Now, that Mukhtaran Bibi’s case has gained so much public attention — locally and internationally — every ‘supporter’ of justice is jumping on the bandwagon to say a word or two in this regard. The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has been the frontrunner in lodging protests against the removal of Hudood laws, but never have they moved any motion for a bill against karo-kari.
Much needs to be done in Pakistan as far as justice is concerned. How many Mukhtarans will be needed before the jirga/panchayat tradition is broken, the Hudood laws repealed, and empowerment be given to women in tribal areas, where they may confidently seek justice, not self-degradation and suicide?
It’s time the authorities reviewed the laws that are clearly discriminatory to women 
