Violence and Victimization Against Women in Mukhtar Mai’s In the Name of Honour

Abstract

Mukhtar Mai’s memoir In the Name of Honour, which changed the course of the women’s movement in Pakistan, depicts the author’s emergence from within the boundaries of local tradition into the realm of globalized debate and activism. Mai’s frank, moving and inspiring work is the outcry of a tribal woman gang raped by the orders of the tribal council for an “honour crime” allegedly committed by her 12-year-old brother. The present paper seeks to examine the representation of the plight of Pakistani women in Mukhtar Mai’s memoir, In the Name of Honour. The paper focuses on the issues of marginality, justice, honour and trauma by taking the case of Mukhtar Mai, a symbol of both courage and victimhood.