While many women quietly suffer an ill fate at the hands of such tribal decisions, and sometimes committ suicide from the ‘shame’, Mukhtaran Mai fought back. Her prepetrators of the crime were tried in the anti-terrorism courts and death sentences were handed down to the guilty. Since then, the judicial process has taken the case back and forth and most recently the Supreme Court has decided in her favor.
Mukhataran Mai’s presence on the web, in the form of a blog, is a wonderful reminder of how digital access can open doors for a better communication between people lwho otherwise may never meet each other. Mukhataran’s audience is global, and while most support her cause, not all people agree with the path she has chosen; some may not even sympathize with her. But at least a healthy discussion is happening where a village woman can be a party to share her thoughts and opinions. Even about the naysayers, she says:
WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY BILL BURTON HOLDS WHITE HOUSE NEWS BRIEFING ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE EN ROUTE TO ILLINOIS
Political Transcript Wire April 28, 2010 WHITE HOUSE NEWS BRIEFING ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE EN ROUTE TO ILLINOIS, AS RELEASED BY THE WHITE HOUSE APRIL 28, 2010 SPEAKER: WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY BILL BURTON [*] BURTON: Good morning. Thank you for joining us. We’re going to have some long drives today, but we’ll see some beautiful parts of the country. So, at 12:20 p.m., the President is going to tour the facility at POET Biorefining. The remarks will be about 1:00 p.m. It’s in Macon, Missouri. He’ll talk to workers about what they’re experiencing during these tough economic times and share ideas for rebuilding our economy in the long term. Secretary Vilsack is, again, along with us for the day. He’ll be with us all the way to the White House later on.
At that event we expect all the statewide officials and the mayor of Macon, Doug Bagley; the general manager of POET Biorefining, Steve Burnett, will lead the tour.
We will then — sorry, just a little more on POET. In Macon they produced their first ethanol in May of 2000, starting with an annual production capacity of 15 million gallons. Three years later the plant expanded its capacity to 46 million gallons per year and added the production of Dakota Gold Distillers Grains and carbon dioxide. The Macon facility was the first ethanol plant in the state of Missouri and currently employs 45 people. website act question of the day
The plant purchases 16 million bushels of corn from 650 local farmers, which annually produces, like I said, 46 million gallons of ethanol, which primarily goes to St. Louis and Palmyra, Missouri, 140,000 tons of high-protein animal feed called Dakota Gold Distillers Grains that’s sold to area farmers, and 94,000 tons of CO2, which is sold to soft-drink companies, food processors, water treatment facilities, to name a few. They also have really cool commercials at POET.
He’ll later have a kitchen table-type discussion with a local farm family to discuss their operation.
At 4:00 p.m., we’ll be in Quincy, at the Oakley Lindsay Civic Center. You guys might remember in 2008 this was the place where the President went and sandbagged in preparation for the floods. And later he’ll — and that’s where he’ll deliver remarks on Wall Street reform.
There will be about 2,000 folks in attendance; 70 percent of the tickets were distributed Tuesday on a first come, first serve basis; the other 30 percent, as per normal, distributed by the White House to local groups and elected officials.
And with that, I’ll take your questions.
QUESTION: Can you preview the remarks in Quincy this afternoon, at least a little bit?
BURTON: Sure. Well, the President is going to talk about the fact that it doesn’t take a degree from the Harvard School of Economics to understand that on Wall Street things are getting back to normal. But if you look around Main Street in rural America, a lot of the places where we’ve been, we’re a far place from a normal that should be acceptable to anyone. And if you look at the kind of economic crisis that nearly brought our economy to its knees with the collapse of financial firms and the bailouts that were required, the President firmly believes and will make the case that we need real reforms in place to prevent those sorts of catastrophes from happening again.
So he’ll talk about the need for Wall Street reform, what it means to Main Street in rural America, and the need to do it right now.
There’s been a lot of talk about this issue for a long time, and people on both sides are saying that they want to get something done. But it’s time to act.
QUESTION: Is he getting impatient?
BURTON: I’m sorry?
QUESTION: Is he getting impatient?
BURTON: The President has been impatient on this issue for a very long time. We need action in the Senate to move this forward.
QUESTION: Now that we’re facing a third vote in the Senate, does he have any indication from lawmakers that that vote is going to go any different than the previous two on getting the debate started?
BURTON: As we took off the conversations were still happening with lawmakers on the Hill, and I don’t have any further update for you, but that’s an ongoing process.
QUESTION: Has he had conversations with lawmakers?
BURTON: None that I know of.
QUESTION: So it’s people from the administration who have been having conversations with lawmakers.
BURTON: That’s right.
QUESTION: Is there any reason Secretary Vilsack didn’t speak at any of the events yesterday? He was governor of Iowa; he seems to be very popular in the state.
BURTON: No particular reason. But he’s — oh, he did actually speak at the pre-programs for some of the events yesterday.
QUESTION: Oh, he did? Okay.
BURTON: Yes.
QUESTION: Bill, why didn’t the President call out Charles Grassley, since he’s talking about financial regulation and he was in Iowa yesterday and he voted against the bill?
BURTON: There’s always a lot of things that the President can say or not say, but I’m not going to get into the, like, ins and outs of every non-utterance the President doesn’t make.
QUESTION: But we were in Iowa.
BURTON: We were in Iowa, and it is a fine state. (Laughter.) QUESTION: Do you have any reaction to the Greek debt crisis, which seems to be spreading, and was hitting markets pretty hard yesterday?
BURTON: This is something that is of great concern to the President. We’re monitoring it very closely. And officials from Treasury and other appropriate agencies are in close contact with folks in Europe about the issue.
QUESTION: Is there something to be said about the timing of this clean energy push while the Gulf of Mexico is being set on fire, there was this mine disaster related to coal?
BURTON: We’ve been having a — we’ve been in the midst of real energy problems for a very long time. Our dependence on foreign oil is too much. The amount of emissions that we put out of our vehicles and factories is too high. And this is an issue that the President has been committed to making progress on. actquestionofthedaynow.com act question of the day
Like I said yesterday, on the substance, there is bipartisan agreement on what we need to do to move forward to help to decrease our dependence on foreign oil, help to increase our production of clean energies here. And basically we’re just in the midst of a process question. And the President is confident that given the fact that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree on what we need to do to move forward, that we’re going to be able to make some very important progress on this issue.
QUESTION: What about the oil rigs off the — in the Gulf of Mexico? Is that going to affect your offshore drilling policy at all? Is that coming into consideration or play?
BURTON: Well, there’s a joint investigation currently under way that multiple agencies across the executive branch are participating in. The President is very closely monitoring the situation. People at the highest levels of the administration have been meeting with officials at BP to discuss not just the cleanup there but what happened there.
We take very seriously the concerns that people have and the issue that’s — issues that are underway today in the cleanup and the fire. But the President is eagerly anticipating the outcome of the joint investigation.
QUESTION: But do you think that he’ll continue the push for offshore drilling?
BURTON: Well, I’m not going to get in front of what the investigation produces.
QUESTION: Any reaction to the Goldman testimony yesterday?
BURTON: I’m not going to comment on what is ultimately an ongoing enforcement action on the SEC. But like I said earlier, there are real problems on Wall Street. There are — there’s a need to rein in some of the practices that got us into this mess. There’s a need for more transparency and there’s a need to protect consumers.
The President is committed to making sure that we make progress and get Wall Street reform done.
QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: Have you seen “Barack the Barbarian”?
BURTON: I have seen that comic book. I liked it because it had few words and lots of pictures — made it easy to understand. (Laughter.) But when you come to Iowa you see all sorts of fun things, and it’s nice to see the manifestation of somebody’s creative energy in the President slaying a large elephant.
QUESTION: Are you referring to Sarah the Red?
BURTON: No, the big elephant.
QUESTION: The actual elephant. (Laughter.) QUESTION: Thank you.
BURTON: All right, thanks.
END 2009 CQ Transcriptions, LLC
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Mukhtaran Mai is a name familiar to most Pakistanis. In 2002, she was raped by 4 men from a rival tribe as per the decision of local elders in a tribal jirga. The story of the jirga decision is a fascinating tale itself in how our judicial and extra-judicial systems sometimes work in rural Pakistan.
Interesting article, but i had one complaint. You mentioned she was punished by a rival tribe in a Jirga. THat it not factual at all. As a Pakhtun i take that as an insult, and as a Pakistani, i find it strange that you do not know your own territory. She was punished by a village Panchayat, which is an ancient pre-Islamic institution from india. You want to know the difference between the two visit punjab to see a Panchayat in action, then visit FATA to see a Jirga. A Jirga would never make such a decision. In fact, Jirgas are known to make fairer and more just decisions on the frontier than any british common law court. Also, I do no t believe that the extent to which this Mukhtaran mai business has gone was her decision or under her control. I think all this has overwhelmed her and her life is no longer under her control but under the control of various groups, both domestic and foreign that want certain policies/agendas pushed forward. There is not one person in Pakistan, or rather the world, who upon hearing of her plight did not feel sorry for her. I do believe though, that she is being made into something bigger than she really is, and the way she is being projected is not accurate. Also, it is funny how the biggest rape cases(except the recent Balochistan case)in the past few years in which women were “punished” by panchayats and publically humiliated (there are more than just mukhataran mai) all originate within one radius in punjab (multan). Perhaps this area needs to be taught a lesson, thoroughly punished by the Army.
Bilal, I was reading everyone else had to say and was getting really annoyed with the debate and finding it increasingly off the point until I reached your post. I think you have hit the nail squarely on the head – we really need to set our house in order before we can other to paint a pretty picture of our country.
I am having difficulty understanding the complexity of how Pakistanis see the modernization of Pakistan. On one hand people want 7-star hotels inspite of the widespread poverty, because in their eyes it somehow allows Pakistan to look “modernized” and ready to enter the 21s century blodly.
On the other hand, people object when a rape victim is provided a support system to stand up for her rights and for the rights of women like her who are oppressed every day, and every night. We may disagree with th etactics used by Asma Jahangir, Hina Jillani and other likes them, but have they ever sided with the oppressor? How many others are there who have consistently taken a stand to protect the under privileged?
At this important juncture in history, the question that should be impotant for us Pakistanis should not be how one kind of media (or another) projects Pakistan, but how Pakistan really is! We cannot paint a nice picture of Pakistan by turning our attention to countering what CNN, Fox, Sky News may have to say about us. Why can’t we just focus on cleaning up our own house and letting news organizations report with whatever bias they may have. Do we really think we can convince a biased western media to change how they report on us? Heck we can’t even change our own media’s biases in Pakistan? I would really rather focus on improving the lives of our own women and children.
The statistics given in my earlier comment refer to the media projection debate. It does not mean that we have to sympathize more with the western rape victims and ignore what so ever is happening in South Asian countries. I said repeatedly that rape should be condemned no matter where it happens but the kind of media projection should be impartial across the board.
“What bothers me about this whole debate is how some people, as a response to violence against women in pakistan, trot out statistics about crime aginst women in Western countries.”
Again, you, too, seem to be misinterpreting the argument being made here on purpose. No one is saying that the situation for Pakistani women is in any way good. Law enforcement in Pakistan is little more than a joke when it comes to implementing any law, be it heinous crime or not.
But those of us who’re living in the West know what news channels say about Pakistan. Most of the time they paint ALL Pakistanis as terrorists or terrorist-sympathizers and when they’re not doing that they are mentioning how it is such a dangerous place that women are raped all over the place and all the time.
What bothers me about this whole debate is how some people, as a response to violence against women in pakistan, trot out statistics about crime aginst women in Western countries. I do not think anyone disputes that crime against women occur all over the world. However, in Western countries, at least there is a system, however imperfect, that seeks justice for the woman. Unforunately in Pakistan, after the crime, the woman is victimised all over again by the police, society and finally the justice system. That is the crux of the matter.
As far as Asma and Hina are concerned, I do not know them personally, but as a Pakistan woman, am forever indebted to them for being in the forefront, along with many others, in resisting the oppression of the mard-e-momin zia-ul-Haq.
No Bushra Adnan probably knows that Asma and Hina were always against Tribal Chiefs like Bugti and any other and today when he is killed they found another story to get a profit out of it. I wish they do sincerely feel bad on his tragic death and a false act of our govt.
Oh yeah, thanks alot Eidee Man, DrPak who understood the context of my comment and gave an appropriate reply to Aalia. I only add one thing here that being a woman its shameful for me to not take a stand for another woman who suffers from some evil acts of our society. Its against my profession and my education in human rights. About Saima’s case you can get enough details on guru google but I may tell you that I worked at Nighat Said’s (a best friend of Asma and Hina) organisation for a month. It was Nighat who told me the story that how they are winning the case by telling Saima to wear western clothes and give this and that statement to newspapers and though Saima did not want to do many things but she had to do that…
It was clear to me that Nighat would never talked to police against her friends on my request, especially when they all were the fish of same pond.
Today I do see that its my obligation to tell donor NGos to not give the funds in wrongs hands. And I am glad there are some sincere local NGOs in Pakistan though they are small but they do alot for women and children of our country and best part is that they do not build a huge red buliding as an office in lahore for them by getting funds from GTZ and other donors but collect money at community base and serve the community with complete transparency and moral values.
She deserves a huge round of applause for how she has shown her resitance against the worst Jirga system. why dont our government make any rules for the idiot people (Members of Jirga) of these areas.
well done Mukhtaran mai for your all good work & best wishes for your blog. she has become a star for the women of the rural areas. Allah bless her.