Once again, the Pakistani government has decided to show just how petty it is. Instead of respecting Mukhtar Mai’s courage, or even just looking the other way while she goes about her business, it has gone out of its way once again to block Mukhtar Mai from speaking.

Ms. Mai had long been scheduled to make an appearance called “An Interview With Mukhtar Mai: The Bravest Woman on Earth” in the United Nations television studios, sponsored by the office for nongovernmental organizations, the Virtue Foundation and the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Human Rights.

But on Thursday night the organizers were informed that the program would have to be postponed because of Pakistan’s objections.

Ms. Mai is leaving New York on Saturday so the effect was to cancel her appearence [Link]

The basic limitation of the UN is that it tries to achieve consensus amongst sovereign member nations. As a result, member countries can often block the organization from doing very reasonable things, like interviewing Mukhtar Mai in the UN TV studios. What’s particularly annoying is the bureaucratic way in which this was done - diplomats are too genteel to cancel her appearence, so they merely postponed it until such time as she was unable to make it. Shame on the Pakistani government, shame on the UN, and shame on Shashi Tharoor.

Asked why the United Nations bowed to the Pakistani protest, Shashi Tharoor, the under secretary general for communications, said he could not comment on this specific case. But, he said: “As a general principle, indeed there are written instructions guiding the holding of any event on United Nations premises in which we are obliged to take into account views formally expressed by member states. This is a building and an organization that belongs to the member states.”

Recounting the 11th-hour nature of the decision, Joseph Salim, the executive director of the Virtue Foundation, a New York-based human rights charity, said, “Yesterday, as we were going about a walk-through, getting our ID badges, they suddenly told us that because this event was considered by the Pakistan government as embarrassing to them, they were going to block it.” [Link]

As usual, Mukhtar Mai handled the Pakistani government’s infantile behavior with her grace and style:

In an interview, Ms. Mai said: “I feel disappointed. I was not going to say anything bad about Pakistan. I was just going to talk about my work and what people are doing.” [Link]

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