…women have it much worse elsewhere. From Butterflies and Wheels:
Nine years after the gang rape, Mai’s struggle for justice ended with the court ordering five of the six accused to be freed. A distraught Mai, who has won international acclaim for her bravery in a deeply chauvinistic society, said that the release of the men had put her life in danger.
It was such a pretty story. Her 12-year-old brother was accused, falsely, of having sex with a woman from another clan. To punish the brother, the village “elders” sitting as a tribal “court” decided Mai should be gang-raped, and so she was. 14 men were accused of carrying out the “sentence.” Only one has been found guilty.
“I am scared these 13 people will come back to my village and harm me and my family,” Mai said, in her remote home in the south of Punjab province. “I have lost faith in the courts and now I am leaving my case to the court of God. I am sure God will punish those who molested me.”
Mai has started a school for girls and a non-governmental organisation that promotes women’s education. She vowed that she would not flee her village, and would continue with her work.
This is one of those very few times I’ll say “If only there was a God.”
17 comments
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Pixelfish
April 22, 2011 at 12:54 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I think you need to put “just” in front of God. Or maybe humanity needs to step up a lot more.
jen
April 22, 2011 at 12:59 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Who do you think some of those NGO’s believe in? I’m a supporter of International Justice Mission (started by a Christian lawyer) which is one of those NGO’s that goes after those courts and those molesters.
LadyAtheist
April 22, 2011 at 2:51 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin…The latest charming news from Indiana: after they force women to have high risk pregnancies if the resulting baby requires day nursing oh well too bad. Dump your damaged good in an institution and don’t ask the state to help you keep him in the family.
Anna Jobsis
April 22, 2011 at 3:51 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Reprehensible bastards. I hope their dicks rot off.
Akshay Bist
April 22, 2011 at 4:46 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Sadly this is not an isolated incident & things, if anything, are getting worse.
Akshay Bist
April 22, 2011 at 6:02 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Yeah, castration should be the legal punishment for rape
the_Siliconopolitan
April 22, 2011 at 8:26 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Yes.I was thinking that this story doesn’t in any way run counter to the existence of a biblical God.
Charly
April 22, 2011 at 8:38 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
When I read these news yesterday, it has given my head such a spin, I was actually afraid it might fly off. My fault – I actually tried to understand, what logic they used to justify punishing a man by sentencing his sister to gang rape.But we should not be too strident in oposing these laws and cultures, shlould we? After all, it is impolite to criticise another culture let alone some religion. It is implolite to call them misogynic retards with mental capacity fro reason below the level of an seriously impaired slug. Ah, here comes the spin again. There is no way tho try and understand these people. The only message that can be given to those elders and anyone else involved ist “fuck off asshole”.
Azkyroth
April 22, 2011 at 9:17 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Fortunately, since no one is ever falsely accused or convicted of anything, irreversible punishments are completely complication-free.
R.
April 22, 2011 at 9:26 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
At times like these I become Hulk-neocon. and would advocate the Marines (esp. the bad-ass ones from Battle for LA; can we get Aaron Eckhart to lead an MEU?) being sent in with all the fires of Arizona (the atheist’s equivalent of Hell).Man, we should cut all aid and sanction it’s goods until the region/nation adopts a “cruel and unusual” punishment clause.
Creative Pseudonym
April 22, 2011 at 9:59 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I pray to my god, Thor, that those village elders and the 14 men be struck down by lightning. And while I’m waiting for that to happen, what can we do to stop this nonsense, it makes me sad.
Warner W. Johnston
April 22, 2011 at 11:18 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
My father’s take on North Africa in WWII was he would not worship a god that permitted children to live that way (and that is about all I know of his WWII experience). This attitude stuck with his children.
Clara
April 22, 2011 at 10:10 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Because women are still property. Legally or not, I don’t know. But there you are. Mess with someone else’s property? Well then yours gets raped. Of course.
Azkyroth
April 23, 2011 at 2:18 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The scariest part is, we even have people in the supposedly sane and progressive West advocating rape as punishment.
davisgabriel2
April 24, 2011 at 8:39 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This is heartbreaking and horrible. You tagged this as feminist, but it’s more than that…it’s a humanist issue.
April
April 25, 2011 at 11:55 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Cos issues affecting women are less than humanist. Mmm.
davisgabriel2
April 25, 2011 at 3:48 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
You drastically misinterpret what I’m saying here. It’s not that this isn’t a feminist issue (it is), but it’s that it’s not only that.