On Consulate Row

In real estate and realpolitick, location is everything. Strange then that fate (or John Lindsay perhaps) placed the New York consulate of Pakistan on East 65th Street, nearly back-to-back with the (you guessed it) Indian consulate on East 64th Street. Their staffs can easily converse over the back garden fence. One just north of the other; both a half a block in from Fifth Avenue and the Central Park Children's Zoo, near which today a gaggle of earnest New Yorkers rallied to support Pakistani human rights icon Mukhtaran Bibi.

As buses and taxis whisked toward the Plaza, and nannies and strollers and tourists tried to claim a path down the sidewalk next to the park, a coalition of human rights organization sent a stern and strong message to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf: it is patriotic to be a Muslim, a Pakistani, and a woman in support of Ms. Mukhtaran.

"President Musharraf has talked about enlightened moderation," said Amna Buttar, president of the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Woman, which organized the public press conference. "Well, we are a group of enlightened and moderate Pakistani-Americans."

The groups involved included ANAA, Amnesty International, Turning Point, Human Rights First, and Women in Islam. Two dozen woman held placards with Mukhtar Mai's picture on them up for passersby and the traffic along Fifth Avenue. All of the speakers called on the Pakistani government to allow Ms. Mukhtaran to travel to the U.S. on the tour originally organized by the ANAA.

The speakers were passionate and eloquent, and time and again, they sought to counter the Musharraf argument that promoting the case of Mukhtar Mai is bad for Pakistan and for Islam. Pakistani-American social worker and activist Robina Niaz, founder of Turning Point, a New York-based organization offering services to Muslim women and families facing cultural, religious and other problems, put it best.

"Mukhtar Mai is a role model for all Pakistani women," she said. "Indeed, she is a role model for all women of the world."

No sign they got through, however. According to a new post on Kristof's blog, the Pakistani embassy handed out flyers saying that ANAA is actually an Indian-financed Hindu group of Pakistan-haters. Nice. But then again, location is everything.

Note: I was going to create a montage of the quickie camera pics I snapped with my Treo 650 today, but found that Technorati did it for me (left) by grabbing thumbnails via RSS from Flickr - and with captions. Neat.

Comments

[UmmZaid]

Hi. Islamicity / IViews.com has published a second article on Mukhtar Mai by Kelly Izdihar Crosby (Izzy Mo blog) -- it's much better than the first article they published. You can find it here:

http://www.iviews.com/Articles/articles.asp?ref=IV0506-2719

[Ad]

How bright is the Pak Govt? The Monday 20th issue of the Daily Times has the govt deciding that instead of Ms. Mukhtaran going to the US, Ms. Nilofar Bakhtiar (the Prime Minister’s adviser on women’s affairs) will be going in her place, for "damage control."

Here.

[Imrana Khwaja]

An excellent piece ahead of the Supreme court trial of Mukhtar Mai case:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4624411.stm

It includes links to a detailed history of the case and a "Day in the life of Mai" kind of piece. Very good, IK.

[Sam]

Subject: Motivation?..to help an indvidual rape victom or change five thousand years cultureal and social evils by a blog???....

Lots of people are saying things about The president of Pakistan whom I respect as an honorable person regardless of his politics, and bad mouthing Pakistan which is a close ally of my country in a very difecult time.

Yes this is a tragedy, rape, gang rape, or rape in any manner is condemned by all civalized socites and religions.

Unfortunately some people are using theire dislike towards the country of my birth and some of the people of my own country are pimping the tragedy of a brave Pakistanie woman for monetray purposes. I consider these organizations as prostitutes of a heinous crime as either begging from people for money or making their names and causes highlighted and showing compassion in a dubious way.Some people are trying to through money at a cultural malfunction due to an ancient law and culture.

In this day and age any negative view of the muslim people by ignorant and or bigoted people is the last thing we need to encourage.

Punjabies are ancient people, who still have tribal life style, this ruling by an old tradition which goes back to thousands of years, should not be confused by Pakistani Law or behavior of the government.Islam is only 1400 hundred years old, most of us punjabies were hindues and some converted to sikhisam, Islam and christanity. In American and Indian midea.

some people are trying to bring every evil act to be highlighted in muslim countries as a norm.

In USA Gang Bang is considered a freedom of speech, but a "no" by a women is respected and if you cross the line it becomes a gange rape, which is severely punished.This socity excepts a duble penetration or sodomy by a baseball bat or foregin object as a freadom of expression and legal protaction is given to the xrated movie companies to market it in adult theaters and video stores. I do not expect people from Pakistan to qustion the norms and Laws of my great country, they must respect our Laws and norms, niter I would like the Pakistanies to put social misfits and criminal acts of my country to be made a subjecvt matter in Pakistan. Our gang rapist can be covicted or be freed by a jury...

If Pakistan is handling this matter in their judical system we should respect that and try to work on our own demons and social issues. If you feel that Us Americans have tackled Rape, Gang rape, Child molesting and all other evils than we can point a finger at Pakistan and its government.

President Mushrif Knowes that their are some nasty, bigoted,opportunitest, hate mongers, Exploiters, Pimps of rape tragedy, sexul,religious perverts who are trying to get cheep thrils from this brave womans tragedy. I am very concerned about the image of pakistanies and muslimes who majority of them are very moral and peace loving people.

...as I have noticed That some of the peoples postings and using democracy, barbaric Pakistanies and other stupid logic to try to justify behavior of a small group of people, showes there ignorent or hidden agenda.

One of the woman wants to make a movie? why....This story has been told on BBC,CNN and tens of media outlets...what is her motivation???? please do not take advantage of poor Pakistanies misery, if you want to help do in a manner of some respect, like anonymously....

a concerned American.

[Sam]

Acquittal of 5 accused wrong, SC told: Mukhtaran case

By Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD, June 27: The government told the Supreme Court on Monday that the acquittal of five accused in the Mukhtaran Mai gang-rape case was based on wrong assumptions. “The Lahore High Court’s Multan bench judgment was purely based on conjectures as all the corroborative evidences were ignored,” Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan said before the Supreme Court bench hearing nine appeals and apex court’s own suo motu in the Mukhtaran Mai case. The case has been pending for over three months.

The Supreme Court had asked the attorney-general to assist the court on the question if the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) could take up the matter by suspending the high court’s order of acquitting convicts involved in the Meerwala gang-rape case.

Mukhtaran Mai, whose plight attracted international attention, was present in the court. Ms Nilofer Bakhtiar, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Women Development, representatives of different non-governmental organizations (NGO) and women politicians were also present on the occasion.

According to reports, Mukhtaran Mai was repeatedly assaulted on the orders of a village council of Meerwala Jatoi in the district of Multan, in June 2002. She was punished for her brother’s alleged affair with a woman of an influential rival clan.

The high court overturned convictions of five men who had been sentenced to death in 2002 and commuted to life imprisonment the death penalty of the sixth convict.

On March 14, the Supreme Court through a suo motu notice stepped in to end an inter-court controversy by staying separate orders of the Lahore High Court, Multan bench, and Federal Shariat Court, which had suspended Multan bench’s order of acquitting the convicts by declaring high court’s judgment as without jurisdiction.

The attorney-general said the question of jurisdiction was also raised at the time when the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) initiated the Mukhtaran Mai trial.

Section 6, 7 and 32 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 overrides Enforcement of Zina and Hudood Ordinance 1979, therefore, any appeal against trial court’s verdict could only be challenged before the high court and not the FSC, he said.

Citing a previous apex court judgment, he said the Supreme Court had held in the Mohammad Abbas case that convictions could be awarded even on the sole statement of a gang-rape victim.

[Samuel]

I am tired of people hiding behind the flag to hide their atrocious acts. Patriotism is indeed the last refuge of the scoundrel. Ancient customs do not and should not justify heinous acts.

How in the world do you equate porn and rape? The word consent mean anything to you. To prove that this kind of repression does not take place in Pakistan alone, the rapist this time being the victim's father in law.

And the ruling on the rape? The woman ought to be separated from her children. The mother of five has to be separated from her husband because the relationship has been defiled.

Sam,you can go on construe this as an attack on Islam as the family in question is a Muslim family, but that only goes to show that you refuse to face the facts.

A woman's rights ought to be universal, not subject to local customs, traditions or religious beliefs.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=imrana+rape&btnG=Search+News