Protests against gang rape acquittal

Women in Pakistan took to the streets this week in a series of rallies across the country to protest against a court's acquittal of five men convicted of a gang rape in a remote southern part of Punjab province. The accused were released last week due to insufficient evidence. Mukhtaran Mai, 23, was allegedly raped in February 2002 on the orders of a council of village elders as retribution for an offence blamed on her 12-year old brother. In August the same year, the four alleged attackers and two village elders who ordered the rape, were sentenced to death in a judgement by a special court. However, five of the six convictions were overturned on Thursday 3 March by a provincial court. While the death sentence of the sixth man, one of the village elders was commuted to life imprisonment. "Its pretty shameful... It creates a very insecure environment that neither the state nor society is able to provide women with protection. Anybody can just commit a rape and get away with it," Aqsa Khan, working on a programme against sexual harassment at Actionaid, an international development agency, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. On Friday, the country's Federal Shariat Court reportedly suspended the provincial court's decision to release the five men acquitted of Mai's gang rape. According to a leading local rights body, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), about 320 women were reported raped in the first ten months of the 2004 while another 350 were gang raped. However, some independent press reports estimate over 10,000 women fall victim to rape annually across the country, noted the annual report of HRCP for 2004 released in February. Rallies and meetings were held in all the four provincial capitals over the week to mark International Women Day and to protest against the increasing number of rape cases, particularly focusing over the two high-profile rape cases of Mukhtaran Mai and Shazia Khalid. Khaild's alleged rape within the premises of a hospital located at the country's biggest gas field, Sui, in the southern province of Balochistan, triggered a wave of violence in the province that led to the destruction of vital gas infrastructure and a nationwide gas shortage. "Justice should be done. The culprits of lady doctor's rape should be punished and institutions should not cover up the entire episode rather round them up," Khan said. Margaret Huber, the Canadian High commissioner in Islamabad on Tuesday visited a girls' school set up by Mukhtaran Mai in her home community of Meerwala in the poverty-stricken district of Muzzaffargarh in southern Punjab. The school was established with funds she was awarded by the court and from international benefactors. Pakistani women continue to battle for their rights inside the national legislature. Sherry Rehman, an opposition parliamentarian from the lower house of the Pakistani parliament, the National Assembly, on Thursday submitted three bills. They aim to repeal the controversial Hudood Laws of 1979 that openly discriminate against women, reduce domestic violence and promote equality of opportunity for women in employment.