NYT: Village Gang-Rape Sentences Are Upset by Court in Pakistan

[DeepModem Mom]

Village Gang-Rape Sentences Are Upset by Court in Pakistan
By SALMAN MASOOD

Published: March 4, 2005


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 3 - Five men sentenced to death in 2002 for their role in a gang rape that was approved by a council in a remote Pakistani village had their convictions overturned Thursday. A sixth man convicted in the case, which set off worldwide outrage, had his death sentence commuted to life in prison, lawyers in the case said.

The circumstances of the rape, in June 2002 in Meerwala, in southern Punjab Province, brought demands for justice, and the government moved fast to bring the case to trial.

According to the prosecution, the Meerwala council ordered the gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, then 30, as punishment for the alleged illicit sexual relations of her brother Shakoor with a woman from the rival Mastoi tribe.

It was later revealed that he had been molested by Mastoi men who tried to conceal it by accusing him of illicit relations with a Mastoi woman. The Mastoi demanded revenge. That was delivered when the council approved the rape of Ms. Mukhtar....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/04/international/asia/04pakistan.html

[Sparkle]

1. The laws and people over there are screwed up.

[Kagemusha]

2. As if the story wasn't bad enough the first time.

The male rape twist just makes it more sickening.

Look, people - this is what happens when you have the rule of men and not the rule of laws.

[JCMach1]

3. This was in a 'tribal' area of Pakistan

There is basically no law there... It's like the Wild West-- only with better weapons and more drugs.

[TheWraith]

4. NW Pakistan is the dueling banjo territory of the eastern hemisphere.

It's such a crazy and fucked up area that even the Pakistani Army, which has no qualms about slaughtering civilians if it has to, doesn't like to go there. The very best thing about the people there is that they spend so much time torturing and murdering each other that they're not a major threat to anyone outside the region.

[distantearlywarning]

5. So...man commits crime and his innocent sister gets punished.

Um. Yeah. I get it.

NOT!

Does this make any freakin' sense to anyone??????

Seriously, this is the kind of thing that makes people think Muslims are raving lunatics. And the kind of thing that makes me have as little sympathy for their culture as I do for ours.

Sometimes I think this entire world is completely insane.

[TheWraith]

6. Did you actually read the article?

The boy did nothing wrong, he was the original victim.

The boy, the brother, was sexually assaulted by members of the rival Mastoi tribe. To keep him from exposing them, they accused him of having consentual sex with a Mastoi woman. The tribal council demanded that the father of the boy pay a fine and present his daughter at the council, assuring him that nothing would happen to her. They lied, and handed the sister over to the five rapists.

Anyway, this is really a Pakistan thing, relatively unrelated to the more distasteful aspects of EMEA Muslim culture.