Interview with Mukhtar Bibi, gang-rape victim denied right to travel

Mukhtar Bibi was gang-raped in 2002, on the orders of a council of village elders as punishment for a crime attributed to her brother. Defying the culture of shame that often surrounds rape victims in Pakistan, the 33-year-old not only went public, but took her attackers to court. Public outcry over the brutal sentence ultimately forced the Supreme Court to take action. In August 2002, six of the suspects in her case were sentenced to death and the other eight acquitted. This March, another court in the province overturned the convictions of five men, and reduced the death sentence of the sixth to life in prison. Bibi was to have visited the United States last week at the invitation of the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of women (ANAA) but she found her name on the government's list of people barred from travelling abroad. The restriction met with bitter protests from human rights advocates, as well as objections from the State Department. Under pressure from Washington, Islamabad lifted the travel restrictions on Wednesday, but President Pervez Musharraf said two days later that he had reinstated the travel ban to protect Pakistan's image abroad. In an interview with IRIN on the telephone from her village of Meerwala, Bibi remained defiant. QUESTION: What is your current situation are you under arrest? ANSWER: The police are still present outside my house. Though the situation is not the same as it was last week, when I was definitely under house arrest, but I still feel I am in prison here. Q: What motivated you to travel to the United States? A: I had received an invitation from the Washington-based organisation fighting to reduce violence against women two months back to visit them. But when I submitted my passport to the US embassy in Islamabad to get it visa stamped in early June, my movements were restricted. My name was also put on an Exit Control List [a list of people not allowed to leave Pakistan]. Q: Where is your passport now? A: I collected my passport from the US embassy on Wednesday without a visa stamp. But it is no more with me. This is all that I can say. [She declined to comment further on why the government still will not allow her to travel abroad and where her passport is now.] Q: Why has the government banned you from going abroad? A: I don't know. I can't understand why the government has done this to me. This was not the first time that I was travelling abroad. I have already gone to Spain, Saudi Arabia and then just last year, to India as well. Q: Do you think Islamabad is concerned that you may bring criticism on the country? A: As far as Pakistan's image is concerned, I've not committed any bad act whatsoever. If Pakistan has become notorious because of the way women are treated, then that's not my fault, go and ask the men why that is. Doesn't the world already know about everything that happened to me? Stopping me from travelling is just bringing more international attention to me, and the issue I have come to embody. Q: Do you feel distressed that those you decided to expose - those who raped you as punishment, appear to be on the verge of release from prison? A: Never. I've never given up. Yes, sometimes, it disturbs me why the court is not deciding in my favour when I am on the right side. Instead, the perpetrators are coming out of jail one by one and not getting punishment, perhaps because of their links with local influential tribal heads. Q: How has this experience changed you? A: It has made me more giving and made me understand the huge need to battle ignorance in all its forms. For over last two and half years now I have been running a primary school with students up to grade four. Five other teachers are working with me.