Newsweek reports on an unlikely heroine emerging in Pakistan -
Soon after Mukhtar Mai was savagely gang-raped on the orders of a village council three years ago, she considered her options. She had never been accused of any crime. (The rape was carried out as supposed retribution for an alleged and implausible affair between Mai's teenage brother and a 30-year-old woman.) But according to rural Pakistan's strict Islamic code, she was forever "dishonored." The local Mastoi clan, which dominates the village council, expected her to keep her mouth shut or simply disappear. Her own Gujar clan refused to support her. "My choice was either to commit suicide or to fight back," Mai recalled last week. "I decided to fight back."...Mai also has become a model for Pakistani women pressing for more rights. She's been a guest speaker at women's forums across the country, and has even taken her message to Spain and India. By broadcasting her case, she has embarrassed authorities. The Pakistani government, aiming to show its support, has paved the dirt road leading into Mai's village and is now connecting local homes to the electricity grid. "The U.S. civil-rights campaign had Rosa Parks, who helped to spark an entire movement," says Sherry Rehman, a Pakistani activist and opposition member of Parliament. "We have Mukhtar Mai."
Somehow, a "you go girl!" just isn't enough in cases like these. Still, as a technologist myself, I can't help but notice the degree to which broadcast media, the Internet, and cheap/easy air travel transformed this case into an icon when undoubtedly so many before her were simply lost in a sea of statistics.
