Pakistan rape victim's blog makes waves
By Dan Isaacs
BBC News, Islamabad: September 8, 2006
Mukhtar Mai was once an anonymous Pakistani villager - but that was before she was gang-raped, apparently on the orders of local elders in a neighbouring village.
From then onwards she has been determined to bring them to justice, and her fight made her an international figure.
Some of the men she said attacked her were convicted, but then the appeal court in Lahore overturned their convictions, amid an outcry from human rights groups.
Now Mukhtar Mai, who is in her mid-30s, is writing her own internet diary, or blog, about her life and her concerns, as a woman from a remote village in southern Punjab.
'Exceptional'
Girls in Mukhtar Mai's village have her to thank for their education.
She established the school and others with compensation money awarded to her by the courts in her rape trial.
Mukhtar Mai is exceptional because she defied the shame of the gang-rape four years ago by not only bringing her attackers to justice, but also by fighting for a change in traditional attitudes towards women.
In that role, she hears many of the problems facing the women of her village. And she now contributes a weekly diary or weblog to the internet site of the BBC Urdu Service.
"Mostly I talk about incidents which are cruel and painful. I try to discuss only the most serious things in my blog: the poor treatment of women, sometimes leading to killing," she says.
Mukhtar Mai's blog is unique. Although she cannot read or write, she tells her stories to a local BBC journalist, who types it up as a web diary.
'Encouraging'
And it provides an insight not only into the crimes committed by men against rural women, but also the hardships of their daily lives.
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