Travel limits on rape victim lifted

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Under pressure from Washington, the Pakistani government on Wednesday lifted its travel restrictions on Mukhtar Mai, whose gang-rape and its aftermath set off worldwide outrage at the treatment of women in Pakistan.

Mukhtar Mai, also known as Mukhtaran Bibi, was to visit the United States last week at the invitation of human rights groups, but she found her name on the government's list of people barred from traveling abroad. The restriction met with bitter protests from human rights advocates, here and abroad, as well as objections from the State Department.

"We were confronted with what I can only say was an outrageous situation where her attackers were ordered to be freed while she had restrictions on her travel placed on her," Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman, said at a press briefing in Washington on Wednesday. "We conveyed our views about these restrictions to the senior levels of the Pakistani government."

Mukhtar, now in her early 30s, was gang-raped in June 2002 on the orders of the village council in Meerwala, in southern Punjab province. The rape was ordered as a punishment because her younger brother was said to have had sex with a woman from a rival tribe, the Mastoi.

Last week, a provincial court ordered the release of 12 men jailed in the case.

Mukhtar has been hailed internationally for speaking out about rape and for setting up schools with the money she received as compensation for the attack. During her U.S. visit, she was expected to talk of her experiences since the incident.

That prospect made the Pakistani government jittery, human rights advocates said, because it would focus more attention on Mukhtar's ordeal, a charge the government denied. Government ministers, in turn, have lashed out at human rights activists, saying they have exploited the case for financial gain and have tarnished the country's image.

On Wednesday, the Pakistani interior minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, announced in parliament that Mukhtar's name had been removed from the list of those barred from traveling abroad by order of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

"She is free to go any where, and there is no restriction on her movement," Sherpao said.

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