Shahnaz Bibi, Pakistani Woman Forced To Parade Naked, Recalls Harrowing Ordeal

A Pakistani woman who was reportedly paraded naked through a village after her son was accused of sleeping with a married neighbor is speaking out about her horrifying ordeal.

As the BBC is reporting, Shahnaz Bibi was at her home in the village of Neelor Bala, north of Islamabad, when four men, armed with pistols and rifles, burst into her room. Bibi, who is reportedly about 50 years old, says she knew them all.

She recalls:

"Before I knew what was happening they tied my wrists and pushed me hard out into the lane, abusing me and sometimes throwing me to the ground. They dragged me to an open plot of land. There, they tore off all of my clothes.

For a full hour they pushed me around and paraded me naked. I cried and pleaded with them but they wouldn't listen and they kept beating me."

Before long, she says, the entire village was watching. "Men, women and children were all there, but nobody came forward to help," she says.

As the AFP reports, the incident, which has since been condemned by human rights advocacy groups worldwide, occurred after neighbor Mohammad Salman grew suspicious that the one of Bibi's sons slept with his wife. India's Hindustan Times reported that the matter was then taken to the village jirga, which decided that Salman's wife, who had become pregnant, should immediately divorce her husband and the two men accused of rape should be punished.

"I said they should have discussed it with us, or should have gone to the police about my son if they felt he had done something wrong, but they just wanted to humiliate me," Bibi says. "The whole time I was asking myself why this curse had befallen me from nowhere. What had I done? I was begging them to stop."

The BBC also reports that local police arrested two men for the attack, and are continuing to look for other offenders. Still, Bibi says she can no longer return to her village. "I feel ashamed even to show my face to my own brothers and sisters," she says.

Comments

[PiperSniper]

11:11 AM on 06/22/2011

"...one of Bibi's sons slept with his wife ..."

"...immediately divorce her husband and the two men accused of rape should be punished."

Uhm, affair or rape? So BOTH women are victims ... nice

[SoldAmerican]

10:05 AM on 06/22/2011

This is the same culture that makes even the sol called "educated Pakistanis" support their armed forces to use terr0r as a state policy.

[OSABB]

07:16 AM on 06/22/2011

This kinda story is what worries me about the so-called arab spring...these nations are more likely to regress into these dysfuncitonal, religious socieites than blossom into full fledged democracies...

[sophiesmother]

11:16 AM on 06/22/2011

Pakistan is not an Arab State, nor an African State it is a South Asian State.

[OSABB]

02:47 PM on 06/22/2011

Thanks for that...Im an arab who lives in an arab country...But heres a lesson for you...Pakistan is a Sunni Muslim country in the tradition of the wahabi Saudis, most of the arab states, and all the "arab spring" ones are also majority sunni...my point is that with all the secular regimes falling, and america tacitly promoting Saudi (since its a darling ally) to fill the power vacuum (one would assume to counter iran), its only a matter of time before the unfortunate regressive nature of sunni islam that is practiced today starts to dominate civil life and takes all of society hostage...and we who live here (minorities, women, seculars) will be the victims...

[blutigeroo]

11:40 PM on 06/21/2011

Tribalism can work. In this case, it obviously did not work. This is disgusting.

[mushimom]

10:04 PM on 06/21/2011

Nice American Appareal ad HP showing a woman's butt cheek, It goes so well with this story!! :/

[Velkor]

06:29 PM on 06/23/2011

Nudity is not wrong. Violence and torture are wrong. The key is consent.

The American Apparel model has every right to choose to have her butt photographed. And the AA model's choice to be photographed semi-nude in no way makes it right to force other women to do the same.

[naschkatze]

09:47 PM on 06/21/2011

I am very sorry for this woman if this story is true as it 'reportedly' happened. I am also very sorry for the woman who was supposedly raped by Gaddafi troops. But our country has a tendency to single out these stories as propaganda demonizing the enemy. How many times have we pledged to help the women of Afghanistan and then dropped them when inconvenient? Now we are supposedly talking peace with the Taliban. We have not advanced very much from the days of WWI when the Hun was supposedly cutting of nuns' breasts and bayonetting babies.

[holyghostie]

08:29 PM on 06/21/2011

The best thing for a Pakistani woman to do is emigrate.

[Susan Shaffer]

07:49 PM on 06/21/2011

I did a google map search to find out where this Neelor Bala is supposed to be and how far "just north of Islamabad" actually is.
It is not on the map.
I don't doubt that it exists. Its is likely to be no more than 50 homes and a rural setting.
What i suspect is that it is NWFP and the mention of the jirga means that they are tribal more than islamic.
On a bright note, the police did investigate it.

[adamben]

12:31 PM on 06/22/2011

generally nothing happens but lets hope that one day these brave women will one day see justice.

[editboy]

06:44 PM on 06/21/2011

Pakistan is a lost cause....

[BoudiccaBlanc]

06:10 PM on 06/21/2011

Why is this woman being punished instead of her son the adulterous woman?

[john649]

02:47 AM on 06/22/2011

misogynists, pakistan is full of'em as are most other countries.
The difference is that most arab countries don't do much to protect women from this attitude.

[Bowen Man]

03:03 AM on 06/22/2011

Because women are objects in Pakistan, not humans. Sad reality.

[myopinion2]

05:36 PM on 06/21/2011

Here's what I wonder. If the boy had a trial, was found guilty of adultery and given a dozen lashes, and the mother was jailed 30 days for not properly raising her son, would we consider this injustice. In other words, is it the humiliation which bothers us, or the behavior which is turned criminal. Do we accept that non-Western cultures can designate their own morality and enforce it with criminal sanctions.

[TaoistG]

07:51 PM on 06/21/2011

it is the misplaced punishment combined with public humiliation of an innocent party that is disgusting to anyone with a sense of justice. Neither the son nor the adulterous wife were punished; by assaulting the mother, the male ape is attempting to dominate the competitive ape's family, as his own wife was dominated by the competitive ape.
Really, these 'cultures' make much more sense if you look at them through a human anthropologist perspectice.

[Susan Shaffer]

08:17 PM on 06/21/2011

very good analogy

[blessedfrog]

05:31 PM on 06/21/2011

And we fund these animals.

sick

[Susan Shaffer]

08:20 PM on 06/21/2011

here is an idea
since you are against funding them, how about helping to open their eyes?
If people only have the one book to read over and over again then their ideas become a little narrow.
rather than sending drones to change this country, send books.
any level of english, any topic (except porn), kids books, adult books, books about art, history, geography
send them to me at
209a2 johartown, lahore, pakistan

[SoldAmerican]

10:03 AM on 06/22/2011

How about helping open the eyes of the scotch drinking Pakistani armed forces and the ISI to not use terr0r as a state policy?

[adamben]

12:34 PM on 06/22/2011

are they allowed to read these books?

[methnkng]

05:31 PM on 06/21/2011

These people are barbaric. Why are we supporting them.

[nowme]

06:25 PM on 06/21/2011

Yes, thank God we do not have abused women in the U.S.A. All our men are honorable.

[Susan Shaffer]

07:43 PM on 06/21/2011

you are joking, right?

[xMoonWalkerx]

05:15 PM on 06/21/2011

Pakistan is just another shi*hole where our tax payer dollars end. There is many more in that list.

[Deaconess]

05:40 PM on 06/21/2011

I hear so much judgmentalness---and no openness to the fact that there may be political realities which demand the attention of the U.S. Besides there are many horror stories in the United States also.

[editboy]

06:45 PM on 06/21/2011

Judgementalness isn't a word.

[bluereality909]

04:57 PM on 06/21/2011

What would you expect from a duplicit country which extorts billions from the USA and harbors our enemy at the sametime. We need to pull our troops out and stop financing these corrupt countries, we have enough greed and corruption in Washington.....we can't afford both.