Pakistani graduate raped to punish her low-caste family

[Indian Panga]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2372124,00.html

A YOUNG Pakistani woman has been kidnapped, raped and beaten by a gang of high-caste villagers because her uncle eloped with one of their relatives. She was chosen for punishment because she had recently gained a degree and was the pride of her low-caste family.

Ghazala Shaheen, 24, and her mother Mumtaz were abducted last month by men dressed in police uniforms from their home near Multan in southern Punjab.

Her shocking ordeal mirrors that of Mukhtaran Mai, 29, who became a symbol in the campaign for women’s rights in Pakistan after she was gang-raped because her 12-year-old brother had been seen with a higher-caste woman. Six men were found guilty but five later had their convictions overturned.

That case provoked an international outcry and led to moves to reform Pakistan’s Islamic rape and adultery laws which effectively criminalise rape victims.

Last week human rights campaigners said Shaheen was unlikely to see her attackers brought to justice because President Pervez Musharraf had failed in an attempt to repeal the Hudood Ordinance, which requires four male Muslim witnesses to support a rape charge. If the accused is acquitted, the victim becomes liable to prosecution for adultery.

While Musharraf was out of the country earlier this month, a committee of hardline Islamic scholars neutered his bill to protect women’s rights which would have repealed the Hudood Ordinance. The scholars claimed the bill was un-Islamic because it “encouraged adultery”.

Shaheen’s ordeal began last month when 11 armed men, believed to be security guards employed by one of Musharraf’s ministers, forced their way into her home, attacked her father and brothers and pulled her and her mother into the street.

“They said we were wanted by the police and dragged me and my mother outside. My shirt was torn off in the struggle,” she said last week.

“Outside, I saw about six or seven motorcycles. They put me on one and my mother on another. We were crying and shouting. They threatened to kill us if we kept shouting. They gagged our mouths with sheets. At one point my mother started resisting and she was beaten with guns.”

They were moved between isolated desert houses at first. As night fell on the third day, Shaheen’s mother was taken to another location and she was left alone with one of the gang members.

“This man sat next to me. A moment later he was on to me. He hit me with his gun on my back and on my body and raped me. I was crying and weeping. But he did not listen, and he repeated it,” she said.

“In the morning, I was told to stand up and accompany this man. I was in pain. I could barely walk. Finally we reached a big house with Nazar Mirani (the gang leader) sitting outside. The man who had raped me told Nazar that he had done what he wanted with me and now it was his turn. They took me to a nearby cotton field and Nazar Mirani raped me.”

Shaheen said she knew Mirani’s name because he had filed a case against her uncle, accusing him of eloping with his wife. Mirani had previously threatened and harassed her father, a former soldier who runs a shop from their mud and brick home.

Mirani later told Shaheen he was taking her to Lahore to marry her so that she could not give evidence against him or his men. As the women were being driven from the house, they were stopped at a police roadblock and freed by officers Shaheen’s father had alerted.

According to her relatives, she had been selected as a kidnap target to maximise her family’s humiliation. She had been been the first in her family to gain a degree. This earned her a job as a local schoolteacher, but the offer was withdrawn after officials said they did not want to be associated with someone who had been raped.

Shaheen said she was determined to bring her kidnappers and rapists to justice. “My mission is to get all of them arrested and hanged, so they cannot do this to any other woman,” she said.

The prospects of a successful prosecution appear slim. Only Mirani has been arrested on kidnapping charges, and without the four essential witnesses a rape conviction is unlikely.

Rashid Rehman of Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission said that while hospital tests confirmed Shaheen had been raped, the examination was conducted too late to identify the rapists.

“Ghazala Shaheen has no chance of getting justice. The evidence has been destroyed. Doctors confirm she has been raped but she can’t prove that she has been raped by the suspects,” he said. There are hundreds of similar cases in southern Punjab every year, he added.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2372124,00.html

What crap maaan......... ?????? I thought Pakistanis made fun of the Indian caste system.

 

[Srirangan]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2372124,00.html


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2372124,00.html

What crap maaan......... ?????? I thought Pakistanis made fun of the Indian caste system.

Yep they do make fun. For some (not all) social issues in India are funny.

 

[Skeptic786]

This is now almost old news.....but i am glad that the english newspaper has had the courage to give the facts. NGO people salvating to make money off the back of this case had it in pakistani newspapers that she was attacked solely because she had gotten a degree.....when in reality the case is more of a revenge attack due to initial provocation from this girl's side of the family.

Similarly in Mukhtara Mai case....it was her brother who raped the sister of the man who raped Mukhtara mai.

Both of the cases were case of revenge attacks. Revenge attacks and even unprovoked attacks on women...specially UK are alot alot worse ( 130,000 rapes annual )......a middle aged hindu lady was coming back from the temple.....was brutally raped and her body torn to pieces ( as if some wild animal attacked her).......till date no person was arrested for this case....its like coming to 5+ years.

 

[Spring Onion]

Ok Mr Indian Punga enough of this crap as this and such kinda crap was and is being posted on WAB.

Nice try to flaimbat on PFF but we are a very clean forum so plz spare us from ur hate against us.

And India is no better if you want me to post dozens of cases where Girls and women are rapped in India.
I can post such right now but -----its of no use to post such crap.

 

[Srirangan]

You are right Jana. Social issues like this should be addressed maturely and not as flame baits. You are also right that it is not Pakistan alone, places everywhere in North India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and other places around the world have this problem.

We need to have proper discourse, not flame baits on this issue. Perhaps you (or mods) can edit this topic to make it a constructive discussion.

 

[Awesome]

As long as it is for debating the issue not going "Haha wow y'all suck" we'll allow it. It's a strong allegation so we'd also allow strong counterarguments in such matters too.

 

[Awesome]

The caste systems of India and Pakistan are much different. In Pakistan the caste system exists as a sign of who has more money with them. Castes are usually family names and in tribal areas families usually inter marry so they are kept as one lineage of a family. The down-syndrome argument aside...

India's caste system is race oriented. Or at least a perception of a superior race vs inferior race.

However this is hardly a case of caste systems either. Reporters have so intermingled the issue here. Graduate, Caste... Whereas the answer is simple. One guy slept with the woman of another guy's family. The other guy's family seeks revenge and rapes a girl from the other family.

A horrible ordeal in itself, but needs to be reported right without making it a sensational rape case like they expect out of Pakistan.

 

[Skeptic786]

However this is hardly a case of caste systems either. Reporters have so intermingled the issue here. Graduate, Caste... Whereas the answer is simple. One guy slept with the woman of another guy's family. The other guy's family seeks revenge and rapes a girl from the other family.

A horrible ordeal in itself, but needs to be reported right without making it a sensational rape case like they expect out of Pakistan.

In the Pakistani press this was raised as matter of her getting education which lead to her attack...this is how it was posted on PDF....since i countered it plenty of examples from the UK ( on the pdf )....the thread was eventually deleted.
People are simply out to mint money by selling horror stories.....west is happy to shell out the pennies becuase it alot cheaper and more effective to denigrate muslims and their culture...if you can have "suffering native" to tell his tale. When the truth is gang-rapes and rapes are alot more frequent in the western society.....and yes the culprits walk out laughing in the face of the victims....without any recourse to the victim to run to the press or abroad to milk the situation for financial benefit. E.g. in the UK only 1 in 19 alleged rapist is found guilty and punished by court.....rest remain free to live an honourable life as they had before.


PS. how many rapes take place in UK.......130,000 despite being 1/3 of pakistan population.

 

[Kaiser]

Pakistan still manages to have the lowest rape rate for a country its size. Its just that the media trys to make money off of it by publishing litterally every rape, not thinking of the effect it would have on the victim and family.

As for India we've seen much more in-human, and wierd things, but ill spare posting them up.

 

[Awesome]

Of course we also have to consider that rapes aren't openly reported by girls.

We should encourage the reporting of rape now that the laws are going to be on their side (hopefully if they are able to set the rules better).

 

[Skeptic786]

In the UK..... I posted the case of 15 year old girl that was gang-raped....court freed all her attackers....judge stoped the trial and didnot allow the matter to go to the jury to decide.....infact he told her that he didnot believe her.....and ordered the rape accused to be freed honourably.....this despite them having accepted that they did have sexx with her that night....it just was not rape or gang rape...that is what judge told the girl.....her saying it was rape/gang rape would not have any legal effect wotsoever.

Imagine if this had happened in Pakistan....the girl would be making world tours and minting cash till the cows come home....but not in the UK....since the court allowed the men to go free....no one dare publish anything to the contrary.....for we have rule of Law in the UK....which even Tony Blair cannot contravene.

 

[Cheetah786]

It dosnt matter where it happens its pretty disgusting thing to happen...and i dont care if its in india pakistan or rest of the world..people who have done it are not protetcted by any religion.and certinly islam is preety clear about the punishment.....And as pakistanies we shouldnt be defending these animals..and for the indians you are posting about cast system u live in a glass house fulllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll of casts .and rape isnt some thing u should try to score points with shame on u.and i do mean on any one who thinks rape is funny

 

[A.Rahman]

rap isnt some thing u should try to score points with shame on u

what you talking about , I rap 24/7 & its a best weapons to settle score with someone ( rap battle)

 

[Srirangan]

:d :d :d Lol!

 

[Spring Onion]

what you talking about , I rap 24/7 & its a best weapons to settle score with someone ( rap battle)

nah yar we cant beat them they are way better than us in this department