Everything is changing, so why not the women? If women can face any problem, they have the power to overcome those problems as well.

Mukhtar Mai is  a women  who has become an inspiration for everyone, all over the world. She is not a celebrity, but  she is famous for her courage to stand against the wrong.

In 2002, as a young woman, Mukhtar Mai was gang-raped and paraded around her village. Recently she has inspired the women by walking in a fashion runway at Pakistan Fashion Week and was titled as ‘Symbol of Courage’.

In 2006, Mai founded the Mukhtar Mai Women’s Organisation (MMWC) in her hometown of Meerwala, Pakistan. The non-profit works to eliminate injustice and violence against women through education, capacity building, advocacy, raising awareness, and service delivery at all levels of society. She wants to support and provide help to women as much as she can in different ways so that women and girls can be empowered and won’t support injustice done to them. The main motive of her work is to educate young girls, to educate about women’s rights and gender issues. Her organization’s foremost priority is to educate young girls, and tries to make sure that they stay in school, rather than work or get married.

Mai is not a well-educated woman but her fight to get justice never led her down, after Mai struggle to punish her attackers. On 1st September 2002, the court convicted six men, four were the rapists and two were village jurors and were sentenced to death. She and her family faces lots of problems, people tried to suppress her in many ways but her strong will and confidence to fight for her right has resulted in a positive way and now she is appreciated worldwide for her bravery and courage.

It doesn’t matter that a women or a girl belongs to which country or community, the heinous crime attempted against them are not stopping, even increasing day by day. It takes more than 10 years, sometimes more than that to punish the rapist or criminal. In many cases criminals are being released and are free to repeat the same.

Amendments have been done regarding juvenile law and many more but is it really working? We talk about a democratic country. In 2005 the crime against women was 155,553 and increased to 337,922 in 2014 according to National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), this is 2016 the numbers must have increased. Gender Parity Report suggests that there has been a 20 per cent increase in cases of violence against women reported every year from 2012 to 2015 in Pakistan. But the important lesson, Mai has taught to the whole women society is not to tolerate wrong done to you, it’s better to Fight for yourRight.

Aakanksha Kashyap

CEMS III

Patna Women’s College

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