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IN THE NAME OF HONOR: A Memoir. By Mukhtar Mai with Marie-Therese Curry; translated by Linda Coverdale. New York: Atria Books, 2006. xvi, 172pp. (B&W photos.) US$24.00, cloth. ISBN 14165-3228-5.
In June 2002, the Pakistani press reported that a young woman called Mukhtar Mai had been gang raped in a village in the Punjab. What made this incident chilling in the extreme was that it had been "sanctioned" by the village council as punishment for an alleged sexual wrongdoing committed by Mai's young brother. Local police initially tried to hush up the incident, but when Pakistan's national' media reported the incident, there was unprecedented public outrage. The rapists were arrested, swiftly tried and sentenced to death. Mai received ari outpouring of domestic support, including financial compensation from the government. She surprised many by using the funds for a school in her village. She also broke the mould of an unlettered village woman by identifying and testifying against her powerful assailants, and by working for women's empowerment in Pakistan.
Not surprisingly, Western media have been reporting Mukhtar Mai's story with more than a modicum of bias. Some reports are blatant fabrications, such as an online New York Times review of a film called Shame about...