Customer Reviews

In the Name of Honor: A Memoir

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This is an astounding story of a simple ordinary Pakistani woman raised in poverty and illiteracy, who has courageously managed to fight against the violence and gender discrimination directed at her and countless other women, with an insistence on justice, education, and gender equality. Mukhtar Mai, who herself has been a victim of one of the many `honor punishments' still widely prevalent in rural Pakistan, was 'justifiably' gang-raped as a punishment for a crime neither she nor her family committed. To have such a rape-victim in the family is considered a social taboo and most of the women who are in similar situations end up committing suicides. But Mukhtar Mai did something different. In spite of getting thoughts to commit suicide, she chose the more difficult path - she decided to live and fight against the injustice inflicted upon her and her family. With the help of the media and various national and international NGOs, Mukhtar Mai's case gained worldwide popularity and in a matter of days a poor illiterate woman living in absolute obscurity in one of the remotest parts of Pakistan gained international fame. This story is a personal rendition of the many trials and tribulations Mukhtar Mai has gone through in the process of obtaining justice in one of the most chauvinistically male-favored justice systems in the world. It is also a story of a stupendous victory at a personal level wherein Mukhtar Mai uses the aid she gets from all over the world to establish a school in her village so that girls living in her village and the surrounding villages can use literacy and education to fearlessly protect themselves from similar injustices. This book would obviously be any feminist's favorite but more than that it is a must-read for anyone interested in the sociological and gender-related issues in the subcontinent.

I felt sick reading this book. It made me realize the perversion that gets called "justice" in many parts of the world. Mukhtar Mai is probably one of the very few women who has actually had the courage to talk about her ordeal... a gang rape masquerading as punishment for an honour crime supposedly committed by her brother. The book describes the Pakistan tribal justice system in a simple and lucid style. She is neither emotional nor dramatic about the events but attempts to describe what she went through and the odds that she had to overcome to fight the system. This book is amazing!

If courage has a new meaning it would be Mukhtran Mai; a simple woman caught up in a storm of malevolence. The village council verdict of "gang-rape" in retaliation for falsified accusation of her brother's questionable frolic rendevouz with the tribal leaders daughter. Mai was quarentined for a ruthless gang-rape by savages of our times. Against all odds she stood up and fought back for justice and is redeemed. Her revenge on the society that shackled her down was a gesture of kindness by setting up a school by all the earnings she received as compensation for her struggles. A school where the family of the savages do attend. In her you find the spirit of forgiveness and mercy. I salute you Mukhtar Mai; for you a semblance for all the goodness left in our society.

To the readers i recommend this highly.

I found this memoir to be well written and well executed. And I salute all women of the world that live in such circumstances and would like to remind many that the practices here are of a cultural system and are NOT condoned by the religion of the victim.
To keep a person illiterate keeps them in bondage. I salute Ms. Mai for here courage to come forth, against all odds, and stand up to the evil of the event that befell her. Because of her knowledge of the Quran, (supposing she understood the Arabic she was taught to recite from memory) she knew instinctively that the conduct of the men around her was NOT condoned in the teachings of Islam or any other people of the book, So who in reality is illiterate?
Islam calls for the protection of women and the vulnerable and forbids the exploitation of orphans and the underdog, God will judge those who trespass on these commands. One quote of the Prophet Muhammad, (PBUH) he himself who was illiterate, was "The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr." Education and the pursuit of knowledge is encouraged in Islamic teaching, in the Hadith and Quran, and by keeping people illiterate is one way of keeping people from knowing the truth. One of the first commands from the Angel Jibreel (Gabriel) to Muhammad was to "READ". What does that tell you?
Sister Muktaran is on the correct path.. a path forced on her by the brutality of the savages that assaulted her, by the barbarism of the social caste system that suppressed her. (another saying of Muhammad "·Even as the fingers of the two hands are equal, so are human beings equal to one another. No one has any right, nor any preference to claim over another") Education IS the best answer to poverty, I would also recommend another publication "Three Cups of Tea" by the Central Asia institute.
May peace and blessings be upon the efforts of sister Mukhtar Mai, and may she be protected from harm as she shares her fortune with those less fortunate. You are inspiring.

Pakistan has three different `legal' systems: a religious one (Muslim), a governmental one (in the cities and developed areas) and a tribal one (in the villages).

The (remote) villages are still a kind of feudal society, controlled by mighty clans and upper castes with the help of the police and religious leaders.
Their `legal' system can be summarized as `an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'.
The fate of women in this society is not less than barbarous. Men want to keep their women in ignorance. There are no schools for girls, who cannot learn to read and to write.
As Mukhtar Mai writes, `women are less important than goats, less important than slippers a man throws away.'

Because her young brother (12 years of age) had spoken to a female member of a reigning clan (the accusation was later turned into `sexual relation without the sanctity of marriage'), Mukhtar Mai was sacrificed by her family and gang-raped in front of the whole village.
While suicide would have been the normal outcome of this humiliation, Mukhtar Mai chose to fight against her assaulters and introduced a formal complaint in a district court.

Her case became headline news all over Pakistan. Her courageous behavior triggered a revolution in her country against the repression of women. Fifty percent of all Pakistani women have been forced into marriage, violated, used as objects of exchange or raped.

This book gives a terrible picture of a feudal society where we all come from. `Feudal power begins with land and ends with rape.'
This book is a must read for all those who want to understand who we are and in which world we are living in.

While this lady went through a horrible experience, her book doesn't dwell on it. Rather, it focuses on her feelings and fight to live, persecute her attackers in the courts and amazing accomplishment of opening a school to help girls (and boys) in her village. Inspiring.

The more we learn about other cultures, the more tolerant we are. Mukhtar Mai was unjustly raped and persisted in having the perpetrators brought to justice. Life for village peasants is so hard. Justice is not what she received, however. Money and class counts in Pakistan. Sometimes money and class counts in the "justice system" in the United States also. If we can understand others, we can turn to our own countries to begin to make changes. Also the more educated a person is, the better chance of obtaining justice. Educate a man and he leaves the village. Educate a woman, and she returns to her village to bring education and health care to her own people. I wish for all the Mukhtars in the world to have education. We have to care for all people and try to make their lives better. We are all related humans under one God.

The plight of Mukhtaran Bibi was so touching. She was an innocent woman, gang raped by order of the tribal council for a supposed rape committed by her 12 year-old brother.

I'm sorry that it did not move me as much as it could have. Most of the book deals with the justice system and trials after the gang rape, whereas I'd have been more interested in her life story up to and including the life altering event. The trials themselves are a mockery, because we know that they would not have occurred had she not received international attention. They drag on and on through most of the book and the ending is not too surprising. I applaud Mukhtar for standing up to the men, which was courageous of her considering her circumstances. However, I would like to have read more about how she lived her life, the culture that brought her to the point of no return.

Some of what Mukhtar reports, I find difficult to believe. For instance, long after supposedly being raped by the young boy, Salma is examined by doctors. The doctors somehow determined she was sexually active for three years and her last sexual relation occurred earlier than the presumed date of the rape. The boy had a DNA test, long after any specimens could be collected from Salma, and it was determined he did not rape Salma. I wonder if the doctors were incompetent, as even Mukhtar knew it was too late for medical exams.

Although Mukhtar fights for the rights of the women so dominated by men that they are kept completely ignorant of the village happenings, she is a product of her culture. She misplaces her animosity, demonizing Salma. "Girls are supposed to keep their eyes modestly downcast, but Salma -- she does whatever she wants. She's not afraid of being looked at, and she even makes sure that she is!" Salma is likely just a pawn in the political dealings of men, much like Mukhtar explains the role of women in the rest of the book. Mukhtar makes many allegations against Salma, but Salma did not rape Mukhtar. It was explained that her allegations that got Mukhtar raped were crafted for political reasons, an argument over land -- not something women are allowed to be involved in. Why blame the woman for what the men have done?

. . . and so I find myself not as captivated by the story as I had hoped.

This book is an unbelievable example of courage in the midst of unspeakable evil. A perfect example of "what the devil meant for evil ,God turned around for good" Mukhtar, you are a hero and a champion for women's right's. A must read.

This is, perhaps, one of the saddest yet most triumphant books I have ever read. The story of dear Mukhtar Mai is touching, inspirational and tragic.

She is a feminist in her own right whose family supports her through tragedy to fight for human dignity. The book made me laugh, cry and cheer along with the woman whose story is truly inspirational.