In less than 24 48 72 hours four days, you've mobilized a small army on behalf of Mukhtaran Bibi, my personal hero and a symbol of courage to many millions. I'll continue to update the main post below, but I wanted to comment briefly on the speed and effectiveness of the small corner of the media world that connects to this tiny Weblog.
It's incredibly powerful, and I'm not sure I realized that until this morning. Since last night you (and yes, it's you, not me) have gotten links and coverage on more than 30 40 65 80 100 blogs. We can do more; we can get it into the talking head slipstream, and onto some larger blogs and sites. So please, take this story and run with it - to me, the outcome of Mukhtaran Bibi's story says everything about what we really believe about freedom.
And please read the blogs of these terrific colleagues, who are getting out in front on the compelling Bibi story:
- CommonSenseDesk [here and here and here]
- The Sawpit [here]
- Trickster! [here]
- Killing Time Bein' Lazy [here]
- KnowProse [here]
- J.D. Lasica [here]
- Republic of Dogs [here]
- Majikthise [here]
- theheretik [here]
- Balloon Juice [here]
- Bowblog [here]
- The News Blog [here]
- The River [here]
- Lance Mannion [here]
- Hootsbuddy [here]
- Ezra Klein [here]
- The Ethical Werewolf [here]
- Pacificus [here and here]
- battlepanda [here]
- Brilliant at Breakfast [here]
- The One True Tami [here]
- MarteyDodoo [here]
- Rhodian Attic [here]
- Random Ravings [here]
- Habakkuk's Watchpost [here]
- Athena [here]
- Stygius [here and here and here and here]
- Preposterous Universe [here]
- perfect.co.uk [here]
- UK Political Blog [here]
- This Space for Rent [here]
- Echidne of the Snakes [here]
- PragueWriter [here]
- Kim's Blog [here]
- Gung Ho! [here]
- Cate McQuaid [here]
- One single child left behind [here]
- Hairmonster Times [here]
- No Right Turn [here]
- Catch.com [here]
- Joe Schulz [here]
- Taran [here]
- Eastway to the World [here]
- BlogJosh [here]
- Preemptive Karma [here]
- Off Road Pakistan [here]
- The Moderate Voice [here]
- Byzantium Shores [here]
- Musical Perceptions [here]
- TPMCafe [here]
- James Wolcott [here]
- The Modulator [here]
- Relentlessly Optimistic [here]
- Indigo Jo Blogs [here]
- Shakespeare's Sister [here]
- The Glasshouse [here]
- PuddingTime! [here]
- Suffolk Punch [here]
- Daily Kos [here]
- After-Party [here]
- Buzz Machine [here]
- Have Coffee Will Write [here]
- The Tattered Coat [here]
- Huffington Post [here]
- I Blame the Patriarchy [here and here]
- Big Brass Blog [here]
- Grab the Mic [here]
- Emerging Sideways [here]
- Kitty Killer [here]
- Finding Neverland [here]
- Finding My Voice [here]
- suhitanantula [here]
- eAsylum [here]
- The Agonist [here]
- Dexter's Lab [here]
- The New Homemaker [here]
- Sunni Sister [here]
- Izzy Mo's blog [here]
- Profits and Prophets [here]
- POV [here]
- Blogtastrophy [here]
- The Magic Tongue [here]
- The Ruth Group [here]
- Broadsheet [here]
- HeraldBlog [here]
- IslamiCity [here]
- BayouBuzz [here]
- MisterBryans [here]
- Cheap Holiday [here]
- dangerousmeta! [here]
- Nomadic behaviour [here]
- Magic tongue [here]
- Liberalogy [here]
- Nye [here]
- Just One Minute [here]
- I Am Chainsaw [here]
- Vegacura [here]
- Fragments [here]
- KTemoc Konsiders [here]
- Der Sturm in meinem Kopf [here]
- A VC [here]
- Moderates Revenge [here]
- Scoble [here]
- Missouri Liberal [here]
- Michael Parekh [here]
- Mystery of the Haunted Vampire [here]
- Panhandle Grassroots for Democracy [here]
- West Indies Cricket Blog [here]
- The Acorn [here]
- 100 Monkeys Typing [here]
- The Newest Industry [here]
- Double Flee A [here]
- Crooks and Liars [here]
- 3 Quarks Daily [here]
- Feministing [here]
- ZepFanMan [here]
- Menstruating She-Devils [here]
- Body and Soul [here]
- Fog Walking [here]
- War and Piece [here]
- Magic Tongue [here]
- Gadflyer [here]
Still coming.... after 5 days! .... I will attempt to keep udating this list; if you want to be listed, just drop me a note. Somehow I think it's going to be a valuable corps of bloggers going forward...
UPDATE: This just in: the Pakistani government says Ms. Bibi has been released! Let's hope this is true and she can complete her travel plans. I know that many, many people used the email addresses posted here and on the other sites - it made a difference, folks: shining a light sometimes can. But please keep blogging this story, now and in the future. Early details from Reuters:
A Pakistani gang rape victim, whose case has been highlighted by international media, has been removed from a list of people barred from travelling abroad, the government said on Wednesday.
Mukhtaran Mai, who was gang raped on the orders of a traditional village council in 2002, had demanded that the government lift restrictions on her movements.
"On the instruction of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the name of Mukhtaran Mai has been removed from the ECL," Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sharpao told parliament, referring to an exit control list that prevents overseas travel.
"She is free to go anywhere. She can go wherever she wants," he said.
NOT SO FAST: Scary stuff from Kristof on his bulletin board and evidence we need to keep the pressure on, till Ms. Bibi is on the plane:
The Mukhtaran Bibi case is still foggy, because she is still being detained by the authorities and denied permission to telephone her friends freely. But the government does seem to be caving.
On Tuesday, the government trotted her out to a press conference. She dutifully said that she did not want to go abroad and that in any case her mother was sick and so she couldn’t. But then she also told some of the reporters who could understand her dialect (her native language is siraiki, and she also speaks some Punjabi, but no real urdu) that she was being forced to say this, and that she was being held against her will. In the meantime, her mother told reporters that she’s in fine health and that Mukhtaran is being imprisoned and wants to go abroad.
Then on Tuesday evening, the prime minister of Pakistan apparently called Mukhtaran, presumably to say the government was relenting. It has now taken her off the “exit control list,” and she reportedly has been taken to the US embassy, perhaps to get a visa. She still hasn’t been allowed contact with her friends, but some think that the government is now just going to wash its hands of the mess and let her go back to her village or just take her to the airport and put her on a plane out.
TO DONATE: I've made a small contribution (actually, big for me) to Ms. Bibi through my friends on the Oxford committee and I'd urge readers to do the same. She's working with a respected international aid organization, Mercy Corps, on building and running her schools in Pakistan. Here's the donation info, if you have the means to help:
To donate to Mukhtaran Bibi's efforts, please send a check or money order to:
Mercy Corps
Mukhtaran Bibi Fund
Dept. W
PO Box 2669
Portland, OR 97208-2669
UPDATE II: The State Department says she's free to travel and a spokesman said the U.S. put pressure on its ally to allow Ms. Bibi to visit the United States. If this is true, I retract some of my angrier opening statements of last night (that's for Alva and Fitz, who called me on the vitriol) but I stick with those condemning the types of allies we do business with in the name of "freedom," and the decision of the Bush Administration to stick with Musharraf. In any case, a good quote from the State spokesperson, in my view:
"We were confronted with what I can only say was an outrageous situation, where her attackers were ordered to be freed while she had restrictions on her travel placed on her," the spokesman said. "We conveyed our views about these restrictions to the senior levels of the Pakistani government. The government of Pakistan informed us today that Ms. Mai been removed from its exit control list permitting her to travel out of Pakistan. We have also advised Pakistani officials that she was invited to the United States by a Pakistani organization based on the U.S."
