Today on dkos we saw two things.
- An important update on Mukhtaran Mai, the Pakistani woman who was gang raped on the orders of the local, tribal council and who -- unlike thousands of women for whom this is a regular occurrance -- stood up and defied her culture to prosecute her torturers
- Hate speech on this diary that in its context is the equivalent to burning a cross on a black family's lawn or spraying a swastika on the home of a jewish family.
Rape is a tool used for millennia to torture women (and men) -- for political ends -- in war and in peace. It is a human rights violation. It is torture.
In countries like Pakistan, that have virulently misogynistic aspects embedded in their culture, rape is used as a tool to both punish the woman for an offense and to punish her family. A woman in these cultures has little or no value, no identity beyond being a vessel for her family's honor. When some slight has been perceived, even if the woman herself is not directly involved, a woman may be raped or gang-raped to exact punishment. Sometimes this rape arises out of a street-justice mentality, and sometimes this rape arises out of the judicial traditions that govern the culture. There is also an expectation after the rape that the woman will kill herself, an expectation that this is the proper thing to do to try to salvage the family honor which has now been stained since she has been raped.
Mukhtaran Mai is only one of thousands, of hundreds of thousands of women who have, for centuries been savagely tortured in this manner.
Her rape was ordered by the local tribal council, the jirga, because her (then) 12-year-old brother, Shakoor, was seen talking with a girl, Salma, from another clan. This clan, the Mastoi, often had disputes with Mukhtaran and Shakoor's clan, the Tatla. Members of Salma's family were outraged that this occurred. Some thought that she had been harassed. It is unclear whether the outrage was primarily fueled by the fact that Shakoor was simply from a disliked clan. Shakoor was abducted by three Mastoi men, raped, cut with knives, and then confined.
While the news of this was stirring the village and Shakoor's family and his clan, a Mastoi jirga assembled (at some point, the local police arrived and took Shakoor into custody). About 200-250 Mastoi clanmembers gathered. The members of the jirga heard the complaints of rape/illegal sex against Shakoor (a judge in Mukhtaran's rape trial found no evidence of this). Reportedly, the tribal leader and jirga member, Faizan, initially was receptive to a proposal by the Mukhtaran family that involved having Shakoor and Salma marry, a donation of land, and another possible facet of the solution, Mukhtaran marrying a member of Salma's family.
Among themselves, members of Salma's family (some of whom were on the jirga) protested and rejected this. However, they told Mukhtaran's family that they would accept their proposal if she came in person to their house and apologized. When Mukhtaran arrived with her father, she was pulled into the house at gunpoint by Salma's brother, Abdul Khaliq. He and three other men (including one on the council) raped her and then tossed her out of the house.
After an event like this, the woman is frequently expected by the community (including her family) to commit suicide, as a way of restoring the family's honor. Yes, female lives are that cheap in these cultures, that one can be so easily sacrificed in an unjust manner, even though she herself is the victim.
But Mukhtaran did something almost unheard of in her culture -- she pressed charges of rape against her attackers. The first trial resulted in her torturers being freed and absolved of wrongdoing. The nation -- surprisingly, considering this goes on all the time -- was outraged and a judge reversed the initial ruling and some of her attackers were convicted after a second trial.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Source: http://www.time.com/...
This woman has been courageous. To not bend to the incredible physical and psychological pressures her culture and her country's legal system laid upon her is an +amazing+ feat. This woman was not only physically and mentally tortured at an individual level, but by society as well. She has earmarked money won in the case for a school for her village. She does not hide. She walks, shows her face. She +lives+. This is a tremendous feat of human strength in a society that expects one to kill oneself after being victimized.
There was a diaryon Mukhtaran today by SusanHu. It's an update on Mukhtaran's story, which goes far beyond the initial torture. Mukhtaran has both been honored by other countries for her courage and been ostracized by her own country for fighting back.
Some misogynistic wag thought it would be funny to tag the diary with these words: "penetration, gang bang, cum stains, fantasy, true love, pussy, skank, used goods." They were removed at least once (by someone else), then added again.
A poster in the diary referred to this individual as a troll. But this action is not merely trollish. It's the online equivalent of burning a cross on a black family's lawn, or painting a swastika on the door of a Jewish family.
The original diary tracked a story, encapsulated in the form of an individual, of how the basic human rights of half the world's population are violated. Every day. As a matter of course. As an example of what +should+ be done. Yes, millions of human beings across the globe are daily subjected to torture in the form of rape, abuse, murder, the reduction of their basic human rights so extreme that they cannot own land, cannot vote, have no recourse against physical abuse by husbands or family members, are ritually disfigured (clitoral and genital mutilation).
Against this portrait someone gave into misogynistic impulses. Wrote words that mocked the pain of this woman and of women in general. Derided their claim that their human rights are no less important than anyone else's. Used language that is characteristically used to shame women. Used language in a specific context to dehumanize women. Because, really, what could be funnier than turning a victim of institutionalized torture into a joke?
This wasn't just a trollish action. This was hate speech. Speech that tried to excoriate women for just being women. Speech that tried to normalize hate through humor. To get us to accept it, to swallow the bad seed.
The tagger was an agent provacateur, no doubt. But the tagger betrayed his/her core sentiments by using those particular words. Egging the house of a Jewish family may just be a childish prank. Painting a swastika on it is hate speech.
We are often very reluctant in this culture to call out gender slurs and gender hate speech. Well, this time is not one of those times.
UPDATED (with a nod of thanks to susanhu and christian dem in nc:
mukhtaran was scheduled to speak at the UN. (likely) due to pressure from her country's government, that appearance has been cancelled.
put a little pressure on the UN, on behalf of mukhtaran and all torture victims...
PETITION THE UN TO ASK WHY MUKHTARAN'S VISIT WAS cANcELLED:
http://www.petitiononline.com/MMai/