According to Amnesty International:
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, every two hours a woman is raped in Pakistan and every eight hours a woman is subjected to gang rape. The frequency of rape is thought to be much higher but many rapes remain unreported due to a combination of social taboos, discriminatory laws and victimization by the police. Meanwhile, Pakistani law is punishing victims of rape as though they were criminals while the perpetrators go free.These are horrible, terrible, awful conditions in which these women live. There are not strong enough adjectives to convey my feelings about this.
With so much of the "law" stacked against women who have been raped, it is all the more remarkable that Mukhtar Mai stood up and said she was raped, pressed the case to get a conviction (which was later overturned), and became a spokesperson for women's rights in Pakistan. She nows blogs about her life through a BBC website.
Mukhtar Mai was once an anonymous Pakistani villager - but that was before she was gang-raped, apparently on the orders of local elders in a neighbouring village.
From then onwards she has been determined to bring them to justice, and her fight made her an international figure.
Some of the men she said attacked her were convicted, but then the appeal court in Lahore overturned their convictions, amid an outcry from human rights groups.
Now Mukhtar Mai, who is in her mid-30s, is writing her own internet diary, or blog, about her life and her concerns, as a woman from a remote village in southern Punjab.
'Exceptional'
Girls in Mukhtar Mai's village have her to thank for their education.
Mukhtar Mai has become a familiar face on TV around the worldShe established the school and others with compensation money awarded to her by the courts in her rape trial.
Mukhtar Mai is exceptional because she defied the shame of the gang-rape four years ago by not only bringing her attackers to justice, but also by fighting for a change in traditional attitudes towards women.
In that role, she hears many of the problems facing the women of her village. And she now contributes a weekly diary or weblog to the internet site of the BBC Urdu Service.
"Mostly I talk about incidents which are cruel and painful. I try to discuss only the most serious things in my blog: the poor treatment of women, sometimes leading to killing," she says.
Mukhtar Mai's blog is unique. Although she cannot read or write, she tells her stories to a local BBC journalist, who types it up as a web diary.
Read the rest.
This woman's courage and strength is outstanding. If we are ever to win this ill-conceived war on terror, it will be because we have raised up women to have power and control over their lives in these Islamic countries. The tribal mentality that allows them to be abused and treated as property must be transformed.
When people like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins condemn all religion, they fail to see that authoritarian, punitive, restrictive religion is needed to tame and contain the tribal, egoic, power-driven version of Islamic faith so evident in the rural areas of Middle Eastern nations.
And if this ever happens, it will be because a few brave women stood up and said we will not tolerate being treated this way any longer. It will be because a few brave women got sick and tired of the abuse and the lack of human rights and joined together to stand against the men.
If young women around the world want to rally behind a woman who represents courage and freedom, they should rally around Mukhtar Mai.
Compelling story Bill, but I'm confused by your recommendation that: "authoritarian, punitive, restrictive religion is needed to tame and contain the tribal, egoic, power-driven version of Islamic faith so evident in the rural areas of Middle Eastern nations."
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like secular human rights groups and the secular BBC are the forces working for change here. Why use the candle of pre-modernity when the floodlights of modernity are readily available?
--Bob
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteYou ask a good question. The power of modernity can support the women to some extent in standing up to the men in these cultures, but the tribal mind-scape has to evolve through another stage before it can get to modernity. Tribal worldviews hear modernity speak and think it's weak-willed and easily manipulated (which it can be, especially when it's colored by shades of post-modernity's sensitive self [like the BBC]). While authoritarian religion can be pre-rational, tribal versions of it are even more pre-rational. With authoritarian/mythic order religion comes more of a sense of personal responsibility for one's actions -- and the dawning of an awareness of a bigger picture.
The authoritarian stage is crucial -- and this is what Sam Harris and the others always miss. The men in these cultures need to learn that mistreating people results in punishment -- this is challenging in Islam when the tribal areas are often controlled by clerics teaching a tribal version of Islam. But all the monotheistic religions have at their core the Golden Rule, which is something the tribal mind cannot grasp. The mythic order version of Islam is much more compassionate and tolerant of others -- and responsible in caring for others -- even if it stems from fear and guilt.
With the authoritarian religion also comes more of a law and order culture, with protections for the weaker members of the culture. This is what is most needed -- the whole package.
Those who reject Spiral Dynamics will disagree with these views, but Beck and Cowan have both been quite successful in employing Graves' work in the field.
Peace,
Bill