Mukhtaran Mai vs. the Rest of Pakistan

There are examples in history where armies were dispatched to protect the honour of a single woman. There is however no example of a single woman dispatching herself to fight against an army of institutions that collectively represent an entire country. An unparalleled example in which a country that nauseatingly proclaims its ’enlightened moderation", gangs up all its state institutions to deny justice to a helpless victim so that the life and liberty of rapists can be protected. A unique case where a country as its state policy (or the lack of it) actively promotes the crime of rape, and still more vigorously protects the rapists - whose links can be invariably traced to the ranks of powerful and influential.

There may not be words profound enough to pay tribute to this woman from Meerwala , who single-handedly shattered the holy myth and the hollow façade of the land of the pure. She has brought home the reality that the state and its uniformly inept, inadequate and immoral institutions will never support an ordinary citizen. They will act only when such an act is committed on the family member of a Chief of Staff, Chief Secretary, Chief Minister or a Chief Justice. The state does not exist for ordinary citizens. She has thus correctly chosen to wage a moral war, all by herself, against the rest of Pakistan.

She is single-handedly fighting against the Jirgas, knowing full well that the powerful wish to retain them as an instrument of oppression. It was a Jirga that ordered her rape. She is fighting against the corrupt police, which did not register an FIR, till forced to do so. She is fighting against the courts, whose inept bickering and myopic clerical understanding has denied her justice for the past three years. She is fighting against the President and the Prime Minister, who did nothing to help her, beyond promises and photo sessions. She is fighting against the ’momins’ and the mullahs, whose measure of morality is limited to marathons. She is fighting against politicians and parliament, whose legislature will provide for slogans but not speedy and respectful support to a rape victim. And finally she is also fighting against the sleeping conscience of the people of Pakistan, whose tolerance for oppression and injustice knows no bounds.

If one day Pakistan has a system that will provide speedy and respectful justice to every rape victim, we must know that it will not have been possible but for the struggle and sacrifice of a helpless woman from Meerwala. Thank you Mukhtaran Mai.