Gang-rape of teenager ordered as punishment for brother's sins


Stormy

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Gang-rape of teenager ordered as punishment for brother's sins

ABCNewsOnline | 7/2/02 | Anon

A teenage girl was gang-raped in central Pakistan last month as "punishment" meted out by a tribal jury for her brother's alleged affair with a woman of a higher tribe, police said.

A Panchayat, or tribal jury, ordered four men, including one of the jurists, to rape the 18-year-old girl on June 22 in the village of Meerwala.

Meerwala lies 610 kilometres south-west of the capital Islamabad.

District police chief Malik Saeed Awan said authorities were informed of the publicly-ordered gang-rape several days after the incident.

He said four men took turns to sexually assault the girl inside a room. She was then ordered to return home naked before 1,000 onlookers.

The rape was to avenge the "insult" caused to a family of the Mastoi tribe by the girl's brother's alleged "illicit affair" with a woman of a higher social standing.

The girl and her brother were from the lower Gujjar tribe.

The Panchayat had threatened that all women in the accused's family would be raped unless the 18-year-old submitted herself to the public gang rape.

Awan said police were taking action against members of the Panchayat.

Lawyers visiting the tribal area on Sunday urged the authorities to prosecute the rapists and the jury.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-2jul2002-5.htm


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Pakistani teen recounts gang rape punishment

Toronto Star | July 4, 2002 | AP

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.



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The above is an old story....but I just heard of another very
simular occurrance (this time with an 11 year old girl as the raped).
I am outraged beyond words....and I can't do a damned thing
about it.
This makes me sick to my stomach.
:shame:

-Astrya
 

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I wonder what ever happened to that lady that sentenced in africa to a be stoned to death for her affair.
 
How in the world can someone justify those actions. As if I didn't already know, there are sick people all over the world. I truly hope that the ones responsible are dealt with.
 
Originally posted by Storm_ofSU
The above is an old story....but I just heard of another very
simular occurrance (this time with an 11 year old girl as the raped).
I am outraged beyond words....and I can't do a damned thing
about it.
This makes me sick to my stomach.
:shame:

-Astrya
[/B]

Not true there is alot that you can do about it. There are many org out there that fight this type of thing every day. I will pulls some links to their websites and give them to you.
 
Just think, these are the cases and incidents that we know about from the media. Imagine the magnitude of the horror cases that we don't know about.
 
Re: Re: Gang-rape of teenager ordered as punishment for brother's sins

Originally posted by JSU*Toi
Not true there is alot that you can do about it. There are many org out there that fight this type of thing every day. I will pulls some links to their websites and give them to you.

Thanks, send them on....

-Astrya
 
I just found one. Check it out:
logo5_01_01.gif

http://www.madre.org

-Astrya
 
Resources for More Information

Feminist Majority: www.feminist.org
Human Rights Watch: www.hrw.org
Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org

Women's Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan: www.wapha.org
Refugee Women in Development: www.refwid.org

Women in Post-Conflict Iraq
Human Rights Watch report: http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/07/iraq071603.htm
Amnesty International report: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE141432003?open&of=ENG-IRQ#women

Woodrow Wilson Center conference on the role of women in Iraq: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/conflictprevention

International Family Planning
PLANetWIRE site for journalists: www.planetwire.org
USAID: http://www.usaid.gov/pop_health/pop/index.html
UNFPA: http://www.unfpa.org/

Global HIV/AIDS Initiative
Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE): www.genderhealth.org
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria: http://www.globalfundatm.org
Global AIDS Alliance: http://www.globalaidsalliance.org
USAID's Office of Global Health, HIV/AIDS: http://www.usaid.gov/pop_health/aids/index.html.
National Journal article on rhetoric surrounding the AIDS bill: http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2003/0801nj1.htm
Politics & Science: www.politicsandscience.org

The Millennium Challenge Account
InterAction: http://www.interaction.org/library/millenium.html
OxFam: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/art4538.html

Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO): http://www.interaction.org/library/millenium.html
Citizen's Network on Essential Services: http://www.challengeglobalization.org/html/news_notices/spring2002/spring_2002_I.shtml

Agricultural Subsidies
International Gender & Trade Network: http://www.genderandtrade.net/
Public Citizen: http://www.citizen.org/trade/wto/Qatar/

Third World Network: http://www.twnside.org.sg/women.htm
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: http://www.iatp.org/

Women's Environment & Development Organization: http://www.wedo.org/

The International Treaty for the Rights of Women (CEDAW)
CEDAW Coalition: www.womenstreaty.org
Amnesty USA: http://www.amnestyusa.org/cedaw/index.html
http://www.feminist.org/research/cedawmain.html
UN International Fund for Women (UNIFEM): http://www.unifem.org/
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/
 

Click here to visit HBCUSportsShop
As we see, there are many orgs that handle these situations. But remember, any time we think we cannot do anything about the situation...that's the exact time we can! Who knows, that may be our next mission from God.
 
i am pushing this BACK to the top

i am also copying a lot of this information to include in an email i am sending out
 
Toi,
I learned a long time ago never to think I couldn't effect change
in anything. The day I posted this thread I had lost touch with the my
"political scientist within". Thanks for not letting me bask in that for too
long. I've been a member of Amnesty International, since undergrad.
and have decided to start dedicating more time to the issues I hold close
to heart. Marriage and motherhood have aparently made me complacent...
...but I'm over it now.

;)
-Astrya
 
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