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jebbypalRaped, Kidnapped and Silenced - Kristof
Well, this will probably be one of his last columns I can comment on since the NYTimes plans to make the oped page only available to paying subscribers. Anyway...
Remembereing hearing last year about the Pakistani woman who was ordered by a village tribunal to be gang raped in retribution for something her brother supposedly did? And how instead of staying quiet (or killing herself), she spoke out? And then started separate schools for both boys and girls w/ donations she had recieved?
Well she got enough donations to also start a shelter for abuse victims as well as buy a van to serve as an ambulance for the village.
What's wrong now? Well "a group of Pakistani-Americans invited Ms. Mukhtaran to visit the U.S. starting this Saturday". And apparently the Pakistani gov (ie President Pervez Musharraf) was a little PO-ed about this: On Thursday, the authorities put Ms. Mukhtaran under house arrest - to stop her from speaking out. In phone conversations in the last few days, she said that when she tried to step outside, police pointed their guns at her. To silence her, the police cut off her land line.
Then on friday, the courts released her six attackers (who had been tried and convincted of their crimes). When Mukhtaran continued calling the US by cell phone to protest her treatment, the police "took" her to an unknown location where she is not allowed to contact family or a lawyer. And if they did release her, all the airports in the country have been notified to not let her leave.
Nice to know that President Musharraf has his priorities in order.
And now I'm going to do my best to not think of how this actually scarily echoes some of what Homeland Security has done to supposedly identified terrorists who have happened to just committed the crime of wanting to take a plane flight.
Well, this will probably be one of his last columns I can comment on since the NYTimes plans to make the oped page only available to paying subscribers. Anyway...
Remembereing hearing last year about the Pakistani woman who was ordered by a village tribunal to be gang raped in retribution for something her brother supposedly did? And how instead of staying quiet (or killing herself), she spoke out? And then started separate schools for both boys and girls w/ donations she had recieved?
Well she got enough donations to also start a shelter for abuse victims as well as buy a van to serve as an ambulance for the village.
What's wrong now? Well "a group of Pakistani-Americans invited Ms. Mukhtaran to visit the U.S. starting this Saturday". And apparently the Pakistani gov (ie President Pervez Musharraf) was a little PO-ed about this: On Thursday, the authorities put Ms. Mukhtaran under house arrest - to stop her from speaking out. In phone conversations in the last few days, she said that when she tried to step outside, police pointed their guns at her. To silence her, the police cut off her land line.
Then on friday, the courts released her six attackers (who had been tried and convincted of their crimes). When Mukhtaran continued calling the US by cell phone to protest her treatment, the police "took" her to an unknown location where she is not allowed to contact family or a lawyer. And if they did release her, all the airports in the country have been notified to not let her leave.
Nice to know that President Musharraf has his priorities in order.
And now I'm going to do my best to not think of how this actually scarily echoes some of what Homeland Security has done to supposedly identified terrorists who have happened to just committed the crime of wanting to take a plane flight.