In the Name of Honour - A Memoir

In 2002, Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman from the impoverished village of Meerwala, was gang-raped by a local clan known as the Mastoi — punishment for indiscretions allegedly committed by the woman's brother. While certainly not the first account of a female body being negotiated for honor in a family, this time the survivor had bravely chosen to fight back. In doing so, Mai single-handedly changed the feminist movement in Pakistan, one of the world's most adverse climates for women. By July 2002, the Pakistani government awarded her compensation money and sentenced her attackers to death — and Mukhtar Mai went on to open a school for girls so that future generations would not suffer, as she had, from illiteracy. Mai describes her experience and how she has since become an agent for change and a beacon of hope for oppressed women. Timely and topical, "In the Name of Honor" is the remarkable and inspirational memoir of a woman who fought and triumphed against exceptional odds.