Meanwhile, back in the real world...

Everybody needs to jump over to Tom Watson's page now and read this post.

Tom wants us all to know about this woman.  Her name is Mukhtaran Bibi.  She's Tom's heroine.  She is everything that's wonderful about the human spirit, and her case represents everything that's wrong with our so-called war on terror.

If you've read Kristoff's column you know why and how.

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. She went out of her way to enroll the children of her attackers in the schools, showing that she bore no grudges.

But then:

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.

Musharraf, of course, is our best and most coddled ally in the war on terror.

But we're spreading democracy and freedom everywhere we walk, like rose petals.

Go to Tom.  He has more plus directions on how to help.

Comments

[Tom W.]

Thanks Lance - spreading the word means bad things can't happen in silence....freedom and rose petals, indeed.

[res publica]

Wow...that is...amazing. I'm not much into heros, but she's definitely a candidate. Oh, and does anyone else die a little inside from shame every time you see this Administration cast America's lot with the forces of suffering and humiliation? Because I do.

[Tom W.]

Blog it Res!!

[Flatiron Dante]

Another hero in this is Asma Jahangir. She has been doing great human rights work in Pakistan for years. I first heard about her from a former colleague of mine who represented a Pakistani woman asylee in an asylum case in which Asma was involved back in the 90s and I have admired her since.

[KathyF]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Guys like you and Tom focus on the important shit.

[Lance]

Kathy,

This is all Tom's doing. I would have missed the story entirely but he grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and forced me to pay attention.

[Kevin]

I read about this yesterday over on Blue Oregon. It's certainly a story deserving of much wider coverage than it's getting!

[Elsie]

Thanks Lance and Tom for bringing this story to our attention. I've passed it on. Maybe in our own little way, we can bring awareness to this appalling situation.

[Greg]

Pakistan gang-rape victim free to go abroad

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani gang rape victim, whose case has been highlighted by international media, has been removed from a list of people barred from travelling abroad, the government said on Wednesday.
Mukhtaran Mai, who was gang raped on the orders of a traditional village council in 2002, had demanded that the government lift restrictions on her movements.

"On the instruction of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the name of Mukhtaran Mai has been removed from the ECL," Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sharpao told parliament, referring to an exit control list that prevents overseas travel.

"She is free to go anywhere. She can go wherever she wants," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050615/india_nm/india_206061

Nice work y'all!

[denisdekat]

We spread freedom for our trade venues...

Did you think that meant freedom as in human rights and such?

BTW the darfur story is much like this, where the men don't leave the villages because they get killed, leaving the women to do it, who in turn get raped. Saldy, they go tno oil, so no freedom for them...

[Adnan Y.]

"Neither moderate nor enlightened, the crude gagging order has confirmed suspicions that Mr Musharraf pays lip service to human rights but often fails to deliver.

There were earlier warning signs. After Time magazine nominated Ms Mukhtaran as one of "Asia's heroes" last year, he told a meeting of newspaper editors that he was furious at the inclusion. He would have liked to "slap the reporter on the face", he raged."

From "Facing The Awkward Truth" by Declan Walsh, the Guardian's corresp. in Pakistan/Afghanistan.