Hope Amid Horror

Acquittals of five men accused of raping Ms Mai have been overturned pending retrial. -BBC

Pakistan rape victim Mukhtar Mai has been in the international spotlight as a result of her campaign to seek justice for herself and other women in Pakistan. She has been writing a blog for the BBC's Urdu website with the assistance of the BBC's Nadeem Saeed. Here is the first in a series of extracts.

It's heartening to learn that Mukhtar hasn't lost her attitude. Thanks to Vanessa over at feministing for the heads up. Some of the other news coming out of Pakistan isn't as good, however.

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....

According to relatives, Shaheen 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 This earned her a job as a local schoolteacher, but the offer was withdrawn after officials said they did not want to be associated with someone who had been raped.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.

Then again...