How have women’s rights in Pakistan changed after world attention on Pakistan gangrape victim Mukhtar Mai and global outrage after wide viewership of videos of the Taliban administering vigilante justice (allegedly on a teenage girl and then on a young couple)?
It’s a question with no easy answers, says Pakistani journalist and filmmaker Beena Sarwar, who has extensively covered women’s rights in Pakistan. Sarwar was in the Capital to showcase documentaries on Pakistani women.
Mukhtar Mai, a low caste Pakistani woman gangraped for ‘honour’ in 2002, became an international poster-woman for justice and gender equality. (A few weeks ago, Mukhtar chose to get married, becoming the second wife of a policeman). Despite all the unprecendented world attention, changes have to come within Pakistan, Sarwar says.
“International attention on the rape victim Mukhtar Mai, who fought a courageous battle to get justice did help her. But on the whole, the world watching videos of the Taliban or condemning Mukhtar’s rapist has led to no change. Often, the world gaze tends to overlook social contexts of the case. There isn’t a sense of empathy for the victims, mostly an attitude, ‘Oh, this happens in Pakistan’ and a lot of Islam bashing. People in Pakistan look at these issues as bringing a bad name to Pakistan. Religious leaders barely ever speak out against them. Pakistan needs to get its own laws sorted out for itself,” she says.
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