Rape riot leads to army arrests

[emad]

Times
From Zahid Hussain in Islamabad



AN ARMY officer and five other military personnel have been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the rape of a woman doctor that provoked a tribal uprising.

Dr Shazia Khalid worked with the state-controlled Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) in the town of Sui in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. She was raped last month at the company’s residential quarters that are guarded by an elite army unit. The doctor, who is from Karachi, was living alone at the time.

Local tribesmen had accused the officer, named only as Captain Hammad, who was in charge of security within the compound, of the crime and demanded that he submit to tribal judicial custom by walking on burning coal to prove his innocence. Guilt is determined according to the severity of burns caused by the coal.

The doctor also suffered a brutal beating and was threatened with being set alight. She has returned to Karachi, where she is having psychiatric treatment.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1483393,00.html

[UL_Approved]

1. Now THIS flies in the face of our national propaganda

Just when you want to get angry over civil rights stuff:

According to friends she is unable to talk even with her close relatives and still fears for her life. Her husband says that the gas company officials warned her not to report the incident to the police.

“They said the move would put her and colleagues’ lives in danger,” he said, adding that his wife was injected with sedatives and told to pretend that she was sick and unable to speak.

Hundreds of armed Baluchi tribesmen attacked the country’s largest natural gasfield with rockets and mortars after the authorities attempted a cover-up by dismissing the allegations against the officer. Enraged protesters severely damaged the plant, causing the suspension of gas supplies to half the country for more than ten days.

It looks like the "backward indigenous population, with their total disregard for women" fights back against government bullshit and proves the stereotype wrong. This speaks volumes to the way people all over the world think. This anti-Arab line is just wrong. These are real people: diverse, honorable, and willing to stand up for the right thing.

[demigoddess]

2. all i can say is --oh god!!

when is this #$%^ going to end.

[Igel]

3. You didn't make your case.

This kind of stuff is routine. A woman from your clan or tribe gets assaulted, you go on the warpath to regain your honor. The other tribe fights to keep its honor.

Many tribesmen regard the central government, in effect, as just another tribe. Rocket attacks against oil pipelines, train tracks, police stations, and other tribes occur a couple of times a month. It may not be pushtunwali, but it's the Baluchi equivalent.

[Colorado Blue]

5. Well said. If one is interested in learning more about the

treatment of women throughout this region there are many interesting books on the subject.

Also, the "Baluchis" are not Arab per se. "Baluch" is actually a catch-all term for a group of tribes that share some similarities, and who range all over the region, from eastern Iran, up through Afghanistan and of course Baluchistan in Pakistan. Most are of Indo-European descent, which sets them apart from the Turkic, Pashtun, Semitic, Kuchi, Kurdish, Jewish, and other groups who criss-cross the region. When one considers that 52 languages are spoken in Afghanistan alone, the nature of determining tribal customs and lineages becomes apparent. It's extremely complex and also many people are nomadic or semi-nomadic so one can understand the richness and variability of the region.

There are groups, known as Arab Baluch, who are of Arab descent.

There are some groups known as Baluch up in Turkmenistan.

Sorting out the many tribes and sub-tribes is an on-going work. My personal interest in it, apart from women's studies, is via their weavings which I study.

One thing I do believe: an assault on the honor of one of their own, or one whom they care about, would result in great anger. But this does NOT mean they respect women's rights per se, in the sense we understand them. People in tribal groups in this region are generally married by adolescence to people picked out by their parents. Women BELONG to their families. This may be changing - slowly - in cities. But these customs are held very dear and the assault of Western culture, while not unwelcome in some ways, is a reason for anger against Westerners throughout the Middle East and Central Asia.

I hope the doctor gets well.

BTW this note is not intended as an in-depth study on the matter! Just a bit of what I've learned. I continue to learn because my ancestry is from the region and because I love their art, and feel empathy for the people here - ALL of them. When I see films of horsepeople being attacked by helicopters it makes me weep. But then we attack Alaskan wolves with helicopters.

Peace!

[rayofreason]

6. Thanks...

...for the informative post!

[Colorado Blue]

7. You're welcome! nt

[newyawker99]

13. Hi rayofreason!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[UL_Approved]

11. I know this

That was the point of my post.

The people of Pakistan have more in common with the Central Asian tribes in culture and language than they have with the Arabic tribes.

And the right issue that I was referring to was the propaganda that we have been fed about "soiled property", where the woman is relegated to a total underclass or killed, and the whole issue is forgotten about. This stuff is what I refer to in my post above.

And yes, they have their problems, but so do we. How far along are women's rights in the old USA?

[Romulus]

4. why Pakistan needs gun control

If those tribesmen had licensed and registered their firearms, then they would have thought twice about taking the law into their own hands.

Licensing and registration helps keep them accountable to the Pakistani government, and discourages antisocial behaviour. That's how advanced societies operate; the will of the people is expressed through the government, not personal pea shooters.

If the government said there was no problem, who are the tribesmen to question that statement?

[Jack_DeLeon]

8. ROFL....

[MasonJar]

9. I'm sorry to stereotype anyone, but these tribes are brutal to

women. Husbands throw acid on their wives; fathers kill daughters. It is a man's dominion.

[Colorado Blue]

10. Saddest of all are the "honor killings" - nt

[genieroze]

12. Poor woman, I hope she gets some justice. eom