Mukhtar Mai, Famed Pakistani Gang-Rape Victim, Gets Married

MULTAN, Pakistan — A Pakistani gang-rape victim who shunned custom and rose to global fame by speaking out about her case has defied another local taboo _ she just got married.

Mukhtar Mai is now the second wife of Nasir Abbas Gabol, a police officer who was assigned to protect her as her case gained notoriety. He said she was reluctant to accept his offer and that he threatened suicide when she turned him down.

Mai was gang raped at the order of a tribal council in the eastern province of Punjab in 2002 to punish her family for her brother's alleged affair with a woman from a higher-caste family. There were also allegations that the boy had been molested by members of the other family, and that the accusations of the affair were used to cover up the crime.

Rape victims in Pakistan face severe social stigma and diminished marriage prospects, prompting many to commit suicide. But Mai went public and challenged her alleged attackers in court, attracting international attention and becoming a women's rights activist.

She was named Glamour magazine's Woman of the Year, and now runs a school in her southern Punjab province village of Meerwala. The case against her attackers is still in the court system.

Mai told AP Television News after the nuptials that she'd never completely ruled out marriage.

"When you do marriage you have to have faith in your partner," she said.

Her new husband told the AP on Wednesday that he was enraptured by Mai's "extreme courage."

"I will do whatever is possible to help my wife in her efforts aimed at raising her voice for the rights of women," he said.

Mai initially refused his offer because Gabol was already married and discouraged him from divorcing his first wife. Pakistan is a majority Muslim nation, and Islamic law allows men to have up to four wives.

Gabol said he was so desperate to marry Mai that he threatened to kill himself unless she relented. Fearing he would carry out his threat, Gabol's first wife met with Mai and persuaded her to marry.

The wedding took place Sunday and a reception is planned for the weekend.

Comments

[Sikander]

06:53 PM on 03/20/2009

It was a bad episode in Pakistan's history and we are sorry that it happened to her. It seems that she has moved on , it is high time that international media moves on as well.

http://real-politique.blogspot.com

[PCMinistry]

11:12 AM on 03/19/2009

Famed Pakistani gang-rape victim? Could there have been a better way to introduce this lady?

[may261989]

03:53 AM on 03/19/2009

Shame he's already got a wife!.. But hey, lets look on the bright side. She is flourishing , at the end of the day that's all that counts.

[Judyisacutie]

01:48 AM on 03/19/2009

That sounds like a crazy way to win a woman's hand in marriage. I wish her all the best.

[crayola 08]

10:49 PM on 03/18/2009

the title of this article just sounds all kinds of wrong. Famed? really? was that really the best word you could've used?

[Urbanbarbie943]

09:58 PM on 03/18/2009

I wish her happiness.

[robadeaux]

09:32 PM on 03/18/2009

So, he manipulated her into marrying him on threat of suicide? That poor woman has got to be feeling more than abused... the guys first wife probably looks on it as a relief.

[Rjchinook]

12:39 AM on 03/19/2009

Thank you for recognizing this absurd irony! Threats of sucide by a Intimate Partner is the ultimate sign of power, control and manipulation. Now what does that say about all the activism she's accomplished?

[Elahrairah]

01:22 PM on 03/19/2009

Particularly because she just became a 2nd wife.

[CJ1]

01:08 AM on 03/19/2009

No, I bet he said that to prove how much he truly wanted to marry her, and not out of pity...hey, Rome wasn't built in a day. You have to see this from her cultural perspective--that a rape victim will bring her husband shame...he might have just countered that with something worse. It's almost medievally romantic...

[cherry33]

09:18 PM on 03/18/2009

I'm happy for her, but as for the plural marriage thing. Well, as I've said, I'm part Pakistani and nobody I knew of growing up had a plural marriage. That's something mainly practiced in the "tribal" areas. Then again, Pakistan has gotten "more tribal" and more conservative since my relatives left. This woman's story is not necassarily a reflection of Muslim Pakistani society. And, the area in which this woman lives is very tribal.

It's not just that not all Pakistani Muslims are like that, it's that this isn't even a complete picture of Pakistani Muslim culture, at least what it was years ago. Times change too.

[Cambridge9]

08:49 PM on 03/18/2009

I have every admiration for this woman and wish her and her new family (her husband and his first wife) a serene and happy life.

I'm also reminded of the young girl in Iran who was stoned to death for the crime of BEING RAPED. I'm so saddened by these circumstances.

[Gasparilla]

07:46 AM on 03/19/2009

That stoning happened in Somalia, last year.

[miamia]

08:06 PM on 03/18/2009

"He said she was reluctant to accept his offer and that he threatened suicide when she turned him down".

Red Flag!

[Alethia]

07:49 PM on 03/18/2009

The commenter who said that it is OK by Islamic Society to gang rape, is incorrect. It is 100% against Islam to do such a thing. In Pakistan, it is the tribal societies, which predates Islam, that have these ridiculous and barbaric rules. It may also not be well-known that the Caste System exists in many areas of Pakistan which is entirely un-Islamic.

[piul05]

09:33 AM on 03/20/2009

Exactly, what people don't realize it that many of the practices which are attributed to a particular religion are, in fact, part of a local culture that existed prior to that religion becoming the norm.

If anyone bothers to read the whole story, they'll see that it was, in fact, the local Iman who publicly denounced the crime and persuaded her family to file a complaint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhtar_Mai

[NorthernCross]

07:31 PM on 03/18/2009

Having lived in another Muslim country not otherwise culturally related to Pakistan, I can say that there's reason to believe a relationship between the widespread practice of Islam in Pakistan and the culture of misogyny there.

[hellostats]

07:06 PM on 03/18/2009

She's beautiful.

[overcat]

06:48 PM on 03/18/2009

There is something inherently wrong with a society or culture that lives by these sort of values. All talk of tolerance and diversity and cross cultural understanding are just so much yapping in the face of such institutionalized degeneracy.

[cherry33]

09:01 PM on 03/18/2009

overcat-

Okay, but first maybe you should be sure to not mock a certain "culture" when it's really about progression. You don't need to lose the richness of your culture if you move forward. The way you put it sounds very arrogant, as if our culture is the authority when we don't always have the right values popularly practiced either. Educated people in every culture for the most part respect life in all manifestations. This problem often comes with poverty too. So, please it's not one society or cuture that lives by such values.

[ideveloper]

06:40 PM on 03/18/2009

This headline could have been worded better. The word "Famed" paints this poor woman in a celeb/oddity light.

May the universe bless her. May she find happiness.