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| March 18, 2014 Kainat Soomro In 2003, the then 13 year old Kainat Soomro was abducted by a gang of men and raped over the course of 3 days. Kainat said the men threatened to kill or sell her. When she escaped, she ran without headscarf or shoes and found her way to a bud driven by a man who knew her father. The driver gave her a headscarf and took her home. Kainat' family rallied around her and supported. Kainat's brother took her to the police in Karachi Pakistan to report the crime. Under Sha'ria law, Kainat was outlawed and the police threatened to kill her because she was impure. Under Sha'ria Law as it is practice in Pakistan, a man can force a woman to have sex and then marry that woman and thereby face no charges. Kainat Soomro, her family and a group of attorneys and activists in Pakistan as currently working to change this. Kainat Soomro (through the amazing support of her family -male and female relatives alike) is speaking out. Her attorney refers to Kainat and other young women fighting this interpretation of law "grassroots feminists." Faisal Siddiqi, Kainat’s Attorney says, "They want to go ahead with the case. I will keep on representing her. I cannot even imagine that people who are so vulnerable are willing to risk their lives, the lives of their family. They are willing to be displaced, and even then want to fight. "In their struggle, there is so much hope. Ultimately, I think it’s very difficult to stop this tide of the assertion of women short of some kind of a counter-revolution in Pakistan. I don’t see these rape victims being put back in their homes and told to shut up. I frankly don’t see that happening." (from Outlawed in Pakistan) The film "Outlawed in Pakistan" recently (March 11, 2014 won the Berlin Cinema for Peace award, which was given directly to Kainat by Faisal Siddiqi. (More on that here: http://tribune.com.pk/ the Frontline film "Outlawed in Pakistan" can be seen here (trigger warnings apply):http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ |
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Kainat Soomro (March 18, 2014) (Feminist Paper Doll Project 2014)
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