"Its a stain on the name of the panchayat," agreed another villager, 65-year-old Manzoor Hussain.. Men sit around on charpoys, sheltering from the blistering heat, while women are conspicuous only by their absence, shielded from pvc single hung window Suppliers view behind the rough stone walls that surround each of the crudely built, single-storey houses..Mai, who lives a few hours north of Multan, made the unusual decision to defy her rapists and take them to court. This incident is a mark of this ignorance," said 46-year-old Imtiaz Matila.The councils have traditionally enjoyed broad support, thanks to their ability to offer immediate justice, compared to courts that can take years to settle a criminal case, and as much as a decade to resolve a civil dispute.Despite her concerns, Minallah is confident that the court will "step in at one stage or another to remind the state that these jirgas are against the constitution and humanity".
The rape of a teenage girl in revenge for a crime committed by her brother has left residents of Raja Ram in central Pakistan shaken and questioning a deeply entrenched system of village justice. Nothing more dishonourableCentral Punjab is also home to one of Pakistans most prominent advocates for womens rights- Mukhtar Mai, whose own story offers a window into jirga justice and its brutal mistreatment of women..But the recent ruling, which allowed a rape victims brother to sexually assault another innocent girl, has unsettled Raja Ram, home to some 3,000 people.But the uproar surrounding the rapes at Raja Ram has spurred the court to demand a full investigation... But in an apparent backtrack in 2017 aimed at unclogging the slow-moving court system, the government passed a new law that promotes village councils as an alternative solution to small civil disputes.The men of the aggressors family must be shamed through the loss of their womens dignity, Sarwari explained."May God have mercy, it was such a strange day and it was such a big injustice," said villager Amina Bibi."There used to be wise people in the old days who were making good panchayat decisions," recalled resident Matila. but now, these are the panchayat," he said, dismissively.
The girls have since been taken to a womens shelter in conservative Multan, Pakistans fifth-largest city.The decision, dubbed the "Jirga Law" by activists, has raised concerns about womens rights, given the precedents set by the panchayats.In July, a council of village elders ordered the rape of the 16-year-old victim after her brother was accused of raping a 12-year-old girl. "They used to know the realities of the village.The ruling highlighted the role such councils- known as panchayats, or jirgas- play in the lives of many rural Pakistanis, who see the countrys courtrooms as a distant presence."Its an honour-based system and theres nothing more dishonourable than the rape of a woman within your family," explained womens rights activist Aisha Sarwari.The new law does not suggest penalties for decisions like the one made by the council in Raja Ram, added Minallah, who brought the original 2006 anti-jirga petition to the Supreme Court. "In our area there is neither a school nor a hospital, and poverty and ignorance rules here."The decisions of the jirgas have always had a negative impact on the lives of women," said womens rights activist Samar Minallah.But in one of South Asias most infamous miscarriages of justice, her attackers walked free, and people continued to rely on panchayats, even as she went on to become a high-profile activist. Raja Ram is just a few kilometres down the road, but feels a world away from urban life.Whatever the court decides, for some in Raja Ram at least, faith in the traditional system has been shaken."Jirga lawThe Supreme Court, trying to bring jirgas to heel, declared them illegal in 2006."Thats the balance of power in these communities, which makes sure that women are some kind of collateral.In 2002, a jirga ordered Mai to be gangraped after her brother was falsely accused of rape
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