Pakistani rape victim says attacks increasing

Khaleej Times Online reported A Pakistani rape victim who became a prominent women’s rights campaigner said on Thursday violence against women was increasing in Pakistan because authorities were not serious about punishing the perpetrators.

They got the western law against rape on the books, but the clerics oppose inforcing it because it is "unislamic" to convict someone of rape unless there are four male witnesses.

Mukhtaran Mai, who was gang-raped in 2002 on the orders of a traditional village council,

I bet there were four male witnesses to that.

said she was appalled by a similar attack on a 16-year-old girl at the weekend. “Such inhuman acts are increasing in Pakistan as the government is not sincere about punishing offenders,” Mai told Reuters on Thursday. “When I read about this girl’s ordeal, I felt the work we have done for women in the last four years was for nothing,” she said.

A group of Pakistani men has been accused of raping the 16-year old girl in the southern Sindh province at the weekend and forcing her to parade naked through her village because one of her relatives eloped with a young woman from the men’s family.

And how was that the girl's fault?

Such attacks, known as honour crimes because they are committed in response to a perceived slight on a family’s honour, are common in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, especially in backward, rural communities.

They should be called Dishonor crimes, because there is certainly no honor involved in committing them.

“When I read about it I realised what this girl must have gone through, and all this in the name of honour,” Mai said. Mai, who runs a community centre for women and a school in her home village in Punjab province, urged the government to provide swift justice for the girl.

Mai was gang-raped in Punjab province in 2002 as a punishment because her brother had had a relationship with a young woman without the approval of the woman’s family

And how was that Mai's fault.

.... In a separate incident, a man and woman were stoned to death by their relatives in Punjab province last week on suspicion of committing adultery.

Death penalty on SUSPICION of committing adultery., and no trial or ability to appeal. Does anyone think that is civilized?