Rapists go free in Pakistan: the awful treatment of Mukhtran Bibi

One of those times when I feel the urge to yell at the world a big Fuck You.

It is a crazy world in which we live, where we are often spectators to all kinds of terrible injustices.  And Pakistan's court setting free the rapists who gang-raped Mukhtar Mai is one of those for which we owe her big time.  A sorry ain't enough :(

Lest we forget the reason why she had to approach the court in the first place--it goes back to the year 2002.  In condemning this "disappointing verdict," The Hindu notes in its editorial:

Since the day in 2002 when she decided to seek punishment for the men who had gang-raped her, Mukhtaran Mai has been a symbol of Pakistani women's struggle against a feudal and patriarchal society in which brutal crimes against women are condoned in the name of honour and custom. In Mukhtaran's case, a panchayat in her village abetted the rape as “punishment” for her 12-year-old brother's alleged illicit relations with a girl of a higher caste. It was expected that, after the treatment meted out to her, Mukhtaran, in keeping with tradition, would conveniently commit suicide, and no liability would fall on any man. But this extraordinarily brave woman, unlettered at the time of the monstrous crime, decided to defy societal taboos to take her attackers to court.

Yes, she was expected to commit suicide after having been gang-raped :(

The reality is also that Mukhtaran's case is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Most atrocious abuses, of women and children in particular, don't get aired.  Which is all the more the reason that Mukhtaran herself waged this legal battle--to ensure that it will set a precedent, in addition to punishment for the rapists.  Now the supreme court has set a precedent all right, but not the one that Mukhtaran sought to establish.  These innocent become "victims of law and apathy"

And this takes us to Meerwala Jatoi, a village in Muzaffargarh district in southern Punjab, where the influential men of the Mastoi tribe, Mai’s tormentors, rule the roost. They are otherwise small fry on the political landscape of southern Punjab, which is home to landlords with large holdings and all the trappings of a mediaeval feudal system in action. It is no secret that the abuse of landless, working men and women, and their children, is rampant here; some landowners even have their own private prisons.
Here, village councils, or panchayats comprising mostly uneducated men whose minds are steeped deep in the dark recesses of tribal, feudal rules and laws of their own making, run a parallel justice system aimed at further victimising the already marginalised in the land, especially those who dare to defy unjust social norms.
Amidst all this operate the rural police whose unwritten rules of duty stipulate that they assist the local landlords in their jurisdiction to maintain peace and order in their respective fiefdoms. This in turn makes the task of policing a cakewalk. They see no evil, they hear of none committed or alleged, and are hand in glove with the influential clans. For the underprivileged, it is literally a dog-eat-dog world.
This cruel social system continues to prevail because of a certain mindset that too is rampant, not only in rural areas but across the board. That’s why an entire neighbourhood can be roused to punish an alleged blasphemer, but there is little social outrage seen when girl children are ‘sold’ in marriages to older men; when women are traded off in forced marriages to settle tribal feuds; and yet others are killed, even buried or burnt alive in the name of so-called honour.

Not only does Mukhtaran Mai have to deal with this awful verdict, she now has to worry about the increased threat to her life:

'I'm disappointed. Why was I made to wait for five years if this decision was to be given?' said a sobbing Mai in a telephone interview from her village in the eastern province of Punjab shortly after the court announced the decision.'The accused can kill me and my family when they return home,' she added.
'I have lost faith in the courts, and now I am leaving my case to the court of God. I am sure God will punish those who molested me.'

Terrible!