A Pakistani woman gang-raped on the orders of her local tribal council, but who then successfully went after her attackers in the courts, has been thwarted from travelling to the United States by Pakistan's government.

Mukhtar Mai spoke with Democracy Now!

Here's the intro text:

In June 2002, a group of men gang-raped Mukhtar Mai near her home in Pakistan. The rape was ordered by her local tribal counsel as punishment for a crime allegedly committed by her 12-year-old brother. After her rape, Mukhtar Mai was forced to walk home nearly naked before a jeering crowd of three hundred onlookers.

According to The New York Times, on average, a woman is raped every two hours in Pakistan, and two women a day die in so-called honor killings. Most of the cases go unnoticed, but Mukhtar Mai defied tradition by fighting back against her attackers in the courts. She testified against them. A number of them were convicted and sent to prison. With the compensation money she received, she opened elementary schools in her village.

Last week, Mukhtar Mai was back in the headlines when the Pakistani government barred her from leaving the country in an attempt to block her from publicizing her case. Amnesty International had planned to bring her to the United States. On the eve of her trip, she was detained by Pakistani government officials and placed under house arrest. The government then apparently tried to intimidate her by ordering the release of the 12 men connected to her rape.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf admitted that he had ordered Mukhtar placed on the no fly list, telling reporters "I don't want to project a bad image of Pakistan." But her detention had the opposite effect, sparking international condemnation. The Pakistani government now says Mukhtar Mai is free to travel wherever she wants. But there is one small problem - they confiscated her passport. Once again, Mukhtar Mai is refusing to be silent and is speaking out to the local and international media about her case. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes, "President Musharraf may have ousted rivals and overthrown a civilian government, but he has now met his match - a peasant woman with a heart of gold and a will of steel."

Here are some excerpts from an interview conducted in April by Pakistani journalist Azra Rashid:

MUKHTAR MAI:[translated by Azra Rashid] Women are facing a lot of problems here, not only at the workplace, but they’re also facing domestic violence and abuses. I can only understand one reason for this. They think women are weaker than men. Men have all controls in society. The second reason is illiteracy. Women are uneducated. They don't know their rights.

The whole world is with me if you think about it. Not just Pakistan, but the whole world. And if I’m not getting justice, then there is little hope for other women going through the same kind of abuse. I don't think women are to blame for this. They don't get justice, and that's why they let these abuses go on quietly.

But now I understand this, especially after the high court decision. The legal system is weak. The law does not have any strength here. If even the law would falsify the truth, who would then women turn to for their justice? If you think about it, I’m not really getting justice. Just look at the high court decision. They refuse to believe the truth. They said it was a total lie. That's a further abuse for women. But God is watching everything. One witness is not enough in Pakistan to prove a rape. They need at least 15 witnesses. The woman who goes through the abuse and exploitation, no one believes her. The high court said it's a false allegation. The case never took place. They said that because there is no one version of the story. I went to file a report, but there was no one to write it.

There are several different versions of the story. But I told them I wasn't the one responsible for documenting it. I was also illiterate. The police is to blame for this, and not me. It's for the first time that someone has filed a report. And even that took two and a half years to be done. But I didn't want it that badly back then. It all changed after the high court decision. I felt really hurt.

The perpetrators of this crime were ignorant and illiterate people. But the judges at the high court were all educated people. I cannot imagine how they could have come to a conclusion like that. Afterwards I started hating education, as well.

We say there is illiteracy and ignorance in this part of the world, and I believe that, too. But if the educated are doing it, what's there to stop the ignorant? I don't know. I don't understand anything anymore. I don't know what they want. Don't they have their own daughters, mothers and sisters? They should try to see it from their perspective. Today there is one Mukhtar, but tomorrow any girl can go through the same ordeal.

Of course, it hurts. You understand that, too, being a woman, the kind of hurt that a woman must feel after going through such violation. But I have to live. When it hurts really bad, I just go to my school, look at the girls and spend time with them to help forget the pain. But I will go on until I have even the slightest hope of justice.

I don't really want to move away from my village. This is my home. I just feel the same amount of attachment to my village as people do to their country. But when people say harsh things about me, I think about leaving this place. But then I tell myself, I have my school and these girls here. If I left, I’d be leaving them behind, too, and the perpetrators will think that Mukhtar gave up and left after everything that happened to her, that if they do that to a woman, the woman will leave, and they will get away with the crime. I think about that. ...

AMY GOODMAN:Let's go to Dr. Israr Ahmad, head of Tanzeem-e-Islami, speaking at the protest in Pakistan.

DR. ISRAR AHMAD:[translated] This non-segregated mixed society is against Islam. Number two, a woman may go out, but only wearing a burka. This is her second circle of protection. This burka is her fort. And then third, the houses should be built so that non-kin males would only sit in the guest room and will not come inside. Because in our society women must remain under the veil. And there's a list in Koran of men who can see a woman bare-faced. And a woman's fourth veil is her body. Her whole body should be covered, except for face, hands and feet. Not even a son should see any bare part of his mother's body. A father should not see any bare part of his daughter's body. This is the veil. We have to keep women under these four veils.