Tuesday 24 May 2011

Dr. Mukhtaran Mai- the hopeful face of the female agrarian subatern

Some years ago I read about Dr. Mukhtaran Mai- a girl gang raped on orders of the village council because her little brother was seen playing with a girl from a higher caste. Needless to say, he was judiciously sodomised for this crime. When his sister tried to intercede she too was raped and then expected to commit suicide. Recently some of her alleged assailants have been acquitted by the Pakistani Supreme Court. I find this very shocking especially after reading this article by a Western female journalist who investigated the matter- which tells us that the boy was not sodomised, the girl's family had more land and were better connected than that of the man her relatives forced her to 'marry'- though this was a sham marriage- the local custom being to resolve vendettas by handing over a daughter for rape to keep the peace . Dr. Mukhtaran Mai never complained to the police. She was dragged into the matter by a local Imam and put her thumbprint to a f.i.r of whose contents she, being illiterate at the time, remained ignorant.( her Doctorate is from Canada, pro honoris causa).

I think the most shocking aspect of this flagrantly Western woman's article is the allegation that no little boy was sodomized in the cane fields of South Punjab. This is an insult as bad as Obama's raid upon Abbotabad!  Army should take action.
(Not that this exculpates David Cameron. That boy aint right.)

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