Death Sought In Pakistan Gang Rape
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for four men who allegedly gang-raped a woman in a remote village after a tribal council ordered the punishment, her attorney said on Wednesday.
Police have arrested 18 people in connection with the June 22 rape, including some of the council members in Meerwala.
"We have made all preparations for filing charges against the culprits in a local court (Thursday)," said Ramzan Khalid Joya, the woman's lawyer.
She was raped after a tribal council in the village ordered the woman's family to be punished because her 11-year-old brother was seen walking unchaperoned with a girl belonging to a different tribe.
The woman's family was from the Gujar tribe, considered lower-class than the Mastoi tribe, the tribe of the boy's companion. The council was Mastoi, as were the men who carried out the rape.
Punishments handed down by tribal councils are common in Pakistan and often are outside Pakistani law.
"The violence against women is not a new phenomenon, but incidents of gang-rape have suddenly increased in Pakistan," said Naeem Mirza, a spokesman for Pakistan's Aurat Foundation, a women's rights organization.
"Mostly, those who commit gang-rapes or kill women in the name of honor are influential tribesmen or feudal, therefore, they escape punishment," Mirza said. "Women are often punished for the crimes committed by male members of their families."
The gang-rape has outraged rights groups, who say the increase in violence against women reflects the demeaning status of women in the country who are victims of a centuries-old tribal justice system.
"Usually, families of the victim of rape don't report these matters to the police to avoid further shame and disgrace," Mirza said.
News of the rape shocked authorities and Pakistan's military ruler, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, gave the woman's family a check for $8,000 as compensation and said a new school would be built in her name.
Joya said all the suspects are in jail at Muzaffargarh, a southern city of Pakistan, near the woman's village.
Originally, it was reported that the woman was 18 but her attorney said Wednesday she is 22.