To Avenge Rape Of A Minor Girl, Village ‘Court’ In Pakistan Ordered & Ensured Rape Of Accused’s Teenage Sister

A village council in Pakistan’s Multan ordered the rape of a 16-year-old girl as a punishment for a rape committed by her brother. The council’s verdict was duly carried out.

Fourteen members of a local “jirga” (village council) have been arrested following a complaint lodged with the Women Police Center by the teenager’s family.

The incident occurred earlier this month in the neighborhood of Raja Ram in Muzaffarabad, a suburb of the central city of Multan, investigators told AFP.

“A jirga had ordered the rape of a 16-year-old girl as punishment, as her brother had raped a 12-year-old,” said Allah Baksh, a local police official.

A man named Umar Wawda raped a 12-year-old girl on July 16 when she had gone to collect fodder from nearby farms.

The village council was assembled after being approached by the brother of the minor victim. On July 18, the minor’s brother, along with his family reached the accused’s home, the Daily Mail reported.

The brother then raped the 16-year-old girl in return, who happened to be the sister of the accused and was forced to appear before the group and raped in front of her parents, on orders of the local council.

To put it simply, both boys raped each other’s sisters.

An interior village where the law governing the country is looked down upon with distrust, local councils, consisting of influential villagers, act as unprecedented authorities of law whose verdict illiterate and ignorant villagers are more than willing to abide by.

That is evident from council’s absurd and barbaric verdict being carried out by the brother of the minor with full support from his family.

The allegations were confirmed by Rashid Taheem, the police officer heading the investigation. Medical examinations have confirmed rape in both cases.

“Both the parties had filed cases of rape against each other at the local police station after the incident that happened last week,” he told AFP.

However, a search is currently under way for the main accused – the man who raped the 12-year-old – who is on the run.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken notice of the incident and has sought a report from the Multan capital city police officer.

“Jirgas,” or village councils formed of local elders, are a traditional means of settling disputes in Pakistan’s rural areas.

Such councils are illegal and mostly come under flak for making controversial decisions, especially regarding women.

A “jirga” was involved in one of South Asia’s most infamous cases of sexual violence against women when, in 2002, it ordered the gang rape of a woman called Mukhtar Mai after her brother was falsely accused of rape.

Mai made a rare decision to defy her rapists and take them to court, an act of extraordinary courage in Pakistan where sexual assault victims still face considerable stigma. Though the offenders walked free, she went on to become a high-profile women’s rights activist and started a girls’ school and a women’s refuge yards away from where she was raped.

Mai has since raised her voice against such horrendous crimes and told Geo News that she is heart-broken over what transpired in Multan.

Her story inspired an opera, “Thumbprint,” which opened in New York in 2014 and premiered in Los Angeles last month.

Such incidents highlight the plight of women in such regions where they are treated more like objects or properties on whom acts of punishment can be meted out to avenge a wrong or a crime committed by the patriarchs of the society.

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