Pakistani teen recounts gang rape punishment

Toronto Star ^ | July 4, 2002 | AP

[Prodigal Son]

MEERWALA, Pakistan (AP) — For two nervous hours, the teenager worried for her 11-year-old brother as their father pleaded before a Pakistani tribal council that the boy had done no wrong in walking unchaperoned with a girl from a different tribe.

The council was unconvinced, and ordered a brutal punishment: The boy's sister would be gang raped to shame her whole family.

Shortly afterward, four members of the council took turns raping the 18-year-old sister in a mud hut as hundreds of people stood outside laughing and cheering.

"I touched their feet. I wept. I cried. I said I taught the holy Qur'an to children in the village, therefore don't punish me for a crime which was not committed by me. But they tore my clothes and raped me one by one," the young woman told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

As she spoke, her mother Allah Bachai sat beside her at their home in Meerwala village in southern Punjab province, wailing.

Senior police and provincial government officials visited Meerwala on Wednesday.

Asef Hayyat, Punjab's deputy inspector general of police, said the top officer at the local police station had been suspended and several close relatives of the suspects were detained to pressure the perpetrators into surrendering.

"We will soon arrest the real culprits," Hayyat told reporters.

Pakistan has a tradition of tribal justice in which crimes or affronts to dignity are punished outside the framework of Pakistani law. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has demanded an end to punishments by tribal councils.

The June 22 rape has outraged rights groups, who say the number of atrocities against women in Pakistan is increasing. And Pakistan's Supreme Court today directed top Punjab police and government officials to attend a special hearing Friday on the case.

Cited by Pakistan's government-run news agency, Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad described the case as a violation of human rights.

Rana Ijaz, the Punjab government's law minister, was among officials who visited the village, and promised a full investigation and assistance to the victim's family.

"This is a very sad and shocking incident," Ijaz told reporters.

Villagers told him the rape was the second in the region recently. A week earlier, a girl in a nearby village committed suicide after being raped by two tribesmen, villagers said.

Local police said Wednesday two men had been arrested in that case.

In the June 22 rape, the Mastoi tribe demanded punishment after the teenager's brother was seen walking unchaperoned with a Mastoi girl in a deserted part of the village. The brother and sister are from the Gujar tribe, which is considered to be of a lower class.

The Mastoi tribe called a meeting of the tribal council. The teenager's father, Ghulam Farid, 54, said he pleaded for clemency with the council, telling them the Mastoi girl was safe with his son because he was too young to have sex.

"I told the tribal jury that my son is ready to marry (the girl) if they think she had been molested," Farid told AP. "But Mastoi tribesmen rejected this proposal saying how could they give their daughter to me, a low caste tribal."

"I begged them ... my daughter is a very pious girl," he said. "I reminded them, `She has been teaching holy Qur'an to your children, you are fully aware of her character,"' Farid said.

But the Mastoi girl's father rejected the pleas and demanded the gang rape as punishment, Farid said. Among the men on the tribal council was Mohammed Ramzan, the Mastoi girl's uncle, he said.

"Nobody supported me. There was no one to protect my daughter," Farid said.

[kaylar]

Yeah, really! I mean, all the articles I've read on this atrocity before this one concealed the religion that inspired it, so much so that freepers were arguing over whether it was Muslims or Hindus. I guess the bit about the Quran could be considered a dead giveaway....

[gabby hayes]

Let's see if this outrage sees the light of print in our "mainstream" publications. My hunch is that the mantras of political correctness and multiculturalism will prevail, and most Americans will remain unaware of this as with female genital mutilation and widespread killing of Christians carried out in various parts of the Muslim world. Human slavery carried on right this moment in the Sudan surely hasn't received wide attention.

[swarthyguy]

There's another thread with these details.

A 30 year old woman was accused of having an affair with the 11 year old boy.

As punishment, the boy's sister was sentenced to be gangbanged.

Whole story reeks of property disputes ala water irrigation rights, tribal vendettas and blood feuds.

There was a whole coterie of freepers claiming these were hindu tribes, and unislamic since these tribal types had obviously not had a chance to truly follow internalise islam. In other words, a leftover from their PRE-islamic tribal ways, because they weren't islamic enough.

After true muslims would never do something like this.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Just cut off the body part used by the men who raped this innocent woman.

There's more to it than just that body part. You want to stop this kind of thing, then you have to remove the brain as an example to others. A high-speed 9mm lead insertion in the back of the head would be sufficient.

[Jonathon Spectre]

Here's another one for my "print out and read to my class" file.

[dagoofyfoot]

I think the most shocking thing about this story is that these lowlife muslims didn't gang rape the 11 year old boy too!

[monkeyshine]

Just wait until they start doing this in California's schools as part of "Diversity Training".

[neutrino]

The June 22 rape has outraged rights groups, who say the number of atrocities against women in Pakistan is increasing

Increasing? I doubt that. Getting reported more frequently is more like it.

The moslem cult likes to rape and abuse women and girls. We can see that in the reports from Holland, Australia, and the UK...they delight in the very act of gang rape. None of which represents a change from the behavior of their loathsome founder, the pedophile mohammed.

There is no hog but allah, and mohammed is her pimp!

[rmlew]

Is it Muslim law or pre-Muslim tribal law?

[dagoofyfoot]

Is it Muslim law, or pre-Muslim tribal law?
I wonder how you would feel if somebody asked you that question after you were ganged raped by a dozen muslim laquered sand apes? Who cares! they're muslims and this is evil as hell!

[FastCoyote]

"There was a whole coterie of freepers claiming these were hindu tribes, and unislamic since these tribal types had obviously not had a chance to truly follow internalise islam. In other words, a leftover from their PRE-islamic tribal ways, because they weren't islamic enough"

who could have been so stupid as to claim this?

[RJL]

Its this kind of tribalism that the Clintons wanted for the rest of us.

Clinton wanted this for himself too, of course he would see himself as one of the tribal leaders who had to "minister" punishment to this girl.

[swarthyguy]

Here -

http://www.freerepublic.com/fo cus/news/710471/posts

and here for more

http://freerepublic.com/focus/ news/709282/posts

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[alexandria]

I vote for also demoting the entire Mastoi tribe to a social position well below the tribe of the victim. Social standing obviously is more important to them than human decency they need to be taught that without decency you are demoted to animal status.

[john in missouri]

Someone should take up a collection to bring Farid, his daughter, and the rest of the family out of that wretched place and to safety in the West--provided they repudiate Islam and convert to Christianity. If they don't have sense enough to do that, they can stay where they are.

I agree with this, except the "provided" part. It smacks too much of coercion. And if Christians were to take up a collection for them, I dare say they would have burned into their minds the difference in treatment they received from Christians vs. from their fellow Muslims.

[Tom Bombadil]

After thinking about it, in principle, detaining relatives isn't much different than ordering a sister raped. It would still be pretty tempting because I suspect that it is written in a language that terrorists would understand.

Your point about the men is a good one although I suspect that the Mother of a terrorist probably is worth a ton of men in terms of leverage.

Yeah, and they left Tom Bombadil out of the movie.

[Savage Beast]

You're right. They have shown that they are the scum of the earth; this should be their official designation.

[Savage Beast]

Maybe so, but I oppose allowing any more Muslims into this country, regardless of the reason. They can repudiate Islam or stay where they are.