Those Charming Pakistanis

[Riggo-toni]

Pakistan Woman Councilor Beaten, Paraded Naked

Mon Dec 16,10:39 AM ET

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's leading rights group said Sunday it was shocked at the public humiliation of a woman councilor beaten and paraded naked through a village on the orders of a powerful landlord.

The News Sunday newspaper said the incident happened on Dec. 7 in a village near Sialkot, an industrial town north of Lahore.

It said in an ordeal that lasted several hours, the woman, the widowed mother of seven, was beaten, stripped and paraded naked through the village by the landlord and his sons after she refused to back his candidate in a local election.

Kamila Hyat, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said the incident was not the first of its kind.

"At least four similar cases have been reported this year," she said, adding the incident was indicative of the low status of women in Muslim, male-dominated Pakistan.

"People think they have the license to humiliate women on some pretext or the other, to subject them to this kind of degradation," she said.

Hyat said more such incidents were inevitable unless the government took tough steps to ensure women's rights were upheld.

Earlier this year a woman was gang-raped on the orders of a traditional jury in a village in the Punjab province. A Pakistani court later sentenced six men to death for the rape, in a trial which highlighted the abuse of women in rural areas.

[Guest SkinsHokie Fan]

Those charming Americans....

Somewhere in Southern America:

A woman today was beaten by her husband and thrown out of her house as her children watched in horror....

Can't single out a whole people

[Kilmer17]

You would have a point if our elected officials or judges ordered it. That's the difference.

[@DCGoldPants]

exactly. Here in America we're like "Well Damn! It's 2002 already...get a grip"

In other countries.....its no like that at all.