Mukhtar Mai wept continually as she described how she...

Mukhtar Mai wept continually as she described how she had been gang-raped on the orders of an unofficial tribal jury as a punishment for her brother's alleged affair with a woman of a higher caste.
Wrapped in a brown shawl, the 18-year-old village teacher told how her screams had been drowned by laughter and jeers from a crowd of 500 people as she was dragged into a mud house by gunmen. Inside she was raped in turn by four men - including one of the members of the jury or jirga, a local court without official status.
"I begged and pleaded with them, but they were like animals," Miss Mai said as she struggled to come to terms with her suffering. "One of them put a gun on my head while the others tore up my clothes." Her father, a poor farm worker, and an uncle heard her cries, but were helpless in the midst of hostile armed tribesmen.
It was around midnight when a battered Miss Mai emerged, almost naked, from the house. The crowd started to disperse as she crawled back to her home few hundred yards away, helped by her father, Ghulam Fareed.
For more than a week after the attack on June 22, nobody took any notice of a crime that is seen almost as routine in Pakistan's backward tribal regions. Her small, remote village lies in the feudal southern end of Punjab province, where women are treated virtually treated as chattels and often fall victim to tribal honour.
The poor farmer could not dare to challenge the powerful and politically influential tribal jury. "They threatened us with dire consequences if we reported the crime to the police," Fareed said. "We are poor people and cannot think of taking them on."
Nevertheless, eventually the crime became national news after a local newspaper reported it on June 30. The police, who had tried earlier to cover up the crime, finally acted, but it was too late. The main accused - including the members of the tribal jury - had already fled. Six people who abetted the crime were arrested after the Punjab Government sacked the local police chief.