My blog is my victory
on September 25, 2006
Category: Human Rights, Gender Violence
A Pakistani woman who was gang raped by five men has been blogging about her experience and her work with women and girls on violence. Her blog is hosted by the BBC’s Urdu website. Some of the rapists were convicted but later these were overturned.
Defying the shame of rape Muktar Mai
Links: Free Mukhta, Dhimmi Watch,
Tags: Pakistan+women+rape
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7 Comments so far
1. Ababoy
September 25th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
A valiant woman. Thanks for this post
2. Curt
September 25th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Amen, sister
3. Sokari
September 25th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
Curt: I thought you would like this one as it is similiar to the idea behind Blogswana where university students blog for an HIV/AIDS partner as well as themselves.
4. sewere
September 26th, 2006 at 1:28 am
Sokari,
Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times wrote an extensive article about her at the beginnnig of the year. I will do a search for the article and send it to you.
5. everchange
September 28th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
I remember seeing this story covered by Kristof a while back. What happened to her was disturbing to read, yet even (to me) more disturbing was the fact that the NYT published her photo as part of the story. If rape victims in the States are protected by law so their identities are not revealed, why was the NYT publishing her photograph? The whole thing felt sordid, it was almost like I was viewing pornography. Here is an article detailing what excatly was done to her (she was sodomised by x number of men, etc) and a picture of a very beautiful humble and head-bowed woman making her way through a crowd. They did not need to publish the woman’s picture when talking about the rapes, why should a seperate standard be applied to foreign women, than if she were american?
6. Sokari
September 28th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
EverChange - I was not aware of that report so thank you for bringing it to my attention.
Muktar Mai is now open and working as an activist on violence against women in her local community and has a blog - do you think it was wrong of the BBC and of course myself to have published her photo now?
I ask because the point you raise with the NYT is very imporant and I agree it was a violation to have done so at the time of the trial.
7. everchange
September 29th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using her photo now, since the main trial is over, plus I think the story has been out of the news long enough, and there isn’t as much a threat to her life.
When the NYT was trying to raise awareness of her case (and I applaud them for doing so), I think it was wrong of them to publish her photo, because to me, it served no real purpose other to ’shock’ or titillate the American public.