photo from http://photos.state.gov/libraries/usinfo-photo/39/Week_4/113006-Pakistan-200.jpgI was flipping the channels today after work and found a documentary on SBS on Mukhtaran Mai. She is a Pakistani lady who was gang raped by a clan of men, who alleged that her younger brother had raped a woman of their clan.
Instead of committing suicide out of shame as was customary, she went to court, without the support of her father or brother (who only wanted to live peacefully without drawing more shame to the family), drew immense international attention to the plight of women in Pakistan, won the court case and built a girl's school and a refuge centre for women in her village with the compensation.
She then went on to advocate for women's rights in her country and lots of other admirable things which can be found on Wikipedia and here.
For a lady who was uneducated (at that point of time), with no notion of human rights, living in a male-dominated society, with no support from the male members of her family or her mother (who wept on TV about how she was powerless to help), she did a marvelous job of standing up to the rest of society, for fighting for her rights and for not bowing down to all the close minded people who badgered her about her "shamelessness". I respect her for all that.
If i was born into her social situation, i would not have been able to do what she had done. If she were born in my place, she could have become the next Prime Minister of Malaysia.
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