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No wonder the Pakistan government can't catch Osama bin Laden. It is too busy harassing, detaining - and now kidnapping - a gang-rape victim for daring to protest and for planning a visit to the United States. Last fall I wrote about Mukhtaran Bibi, a woman who was sentenced by a tribal council in Pakistan to be gang-raped because of an infraction supposedly committed by her brother. Four men raped Ms. Mukhtaran, then village leaders forced her to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd of 300. Ms. Mukhtaran was supposed to have committed suicide. Instead, with...

Last week, Pakistan's Federal Shariat Court—the nation's highest Islamic court—vacated an appeals court decision that had outraged the world. In essence, the appeals court had acquitted five of the six men convicted in the 2002 "honor rape" of Mukhtar Mai. Her ongoing story may well foreshadow the future of Muslim women who suffer under tribal law and other oppressive traditions. Hers is a savage tale of brutalization and courage, with confusing twists and a resolution that is uncertain. But it is a story of hope, which provides reason for optimism. In it, the West provides an invaluable voice of conscience...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani victim of gang-rape says her life is in danger after the acquittal of five of the six men she had accused. In a surprise decision on Thursday, a high court in the central city of Multan struck down a lower court decision which found the men guilty of raping Mukhtaran Mai, 30, on the orders of a village council in July 2002. The High Court commuted the death sentence of a sixth man to life in prison in an appeal hearing in which the men pleaded not guilty. The High Court acquitted the men on...

Mukhtaran Bibi, the young woman who was victim of the gang-rape following the verdict of a 'jirga' of village council in Meerwala near Muzzafargarh now hopes to devote her life to setting up a school for girls in her area. Speaking for the first time to some reporters, Mukhtaran, herself an illiterate, said that she had received a cheque for Rs500,000 sent to her as 'compensation' by the president of Pakistan and she intended to use this many to better the future of girls in her area. The cheque was given to Mukhtaran Bibi by Minister Dr Attiya Inayatullah who...