Original language:
French Translated from: French
Authors: Mukhtar Mai
Translated by: Karazijaitė, Jūratė
Full translated source bibliographical description:
Mai, Mukhtar. Déshonorée. Paris: 2006
ISBN: 978-609-01-0210-7
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2011
Publisher: Alma littera
”In the Name of Honor” is a true Pakistani woman Mukhtar Mai story that begins with a crime against humanity. When speculations that Mukhtar twelve junior brother had met a girl from another clan, in convened village court, they require compensation for damage to women\’s honour. Sacrifice for a crime: Mukhtar is condemned for group rape, for alleged brother’s crime, who eventually detected as false.
The sentence was executed! 2002 June 22, for desecrated 28-year-old woman is extremely difficult to recover, especially in an environment where women are stigmatized not only by offenders, but can be misunderstood by surrounding environment. Following the example of other women, raped and humiliated Mukhtar, it seems, there remained only one way out – suicide. However this woman\’s determination, courage and persistence, because of the fear to loose her live and for safety of loved ones, as well as blind faith in its own country and its justice made her speak. And from the deepest wilds Pakistan came a voice that touched the whole world. The book reveals Pakistan, as a country, which is controlled by birth right and tradition, where everything depends on your position in society, influence and money, where women do not have the word right. “Women are destined to demean, to beg forgiveness before all the village men gathered in the Jirga meeting to mastojų home.” (P. 9)
The rest part of the book tells the story of the attempt to accomplish justice, not vengeance, but the legal way, but the biggest problem is that Mukhtar Mai, like most women in Pakistan, can neither read nor write, what causes a lot of problems. In this terrible history Mukhtar also tells a bit about his childhood, about the wedding ceremony, about how she set up a school for girls. In a dark story glitters is hope, and courage of rural women and the growing self-consciousness captivates the reader.
Because of her active participation in the struggle for justice, human and women’s rights in 2005, she received the Woman of the Year Award. Her fight for the rights of women has received and still receives massive support which gives her strength to continue to fight the barbaric society in which people live and customs.