Fifteen years after her gang rape by a local clan in her village in Pakistan, Mukhtar Mai is reliving her ordeal, but also her courage, through a US opera inspired by her story.
The opera, by composer Kamala Sankaram and librettist Susan Yankowitz, recounts Mai's 2002 rape and her decision to defy her attackers and take them to court.
Mai was raped with the approval of the village council as punishment after her 12-year-old brother was falsely accused of having an illicit relationship with a woman from the dominant clan in the village.
In 2005, Mai's name was placed on the country's Exit Control List after it emerged she was scheduled to fly to London at the invitation of Amnesty International, the rights advocacy group.
Pervez Musharraf, the then Pakistan president, admitted it was the case because he did not "want to project a bad image of Pakistan".
On 12 June 2005 Mukhtaran was abruptly asked by the government to travel to Lahore to meet with provincial assembly member Shagufta Anwar, and then go to Islamabad to meet with Presidential advisor, Nilofer Bakhtiar.
Mukhtaran stated that she did not know the purpose of the trip but knew that should would be meeting "one Shagufta and in Islamabad the PM’s adviser". She again criticized the police personnel assigned at her residence in Meerwala, saying that they had made life miserable for her and her family, and that her aide Naseem was denied exit from Mukhtaran’s house.
Mukhtaran's attackers, and the Mastoi of the so-called panchayat that conspired in her rape, were sentenced to death by the Dera Ghazi Khan Anti-Terror Court (ATC) in 2002. The ATC venue was ruled appropriate in this case because the Mastoi had intimidated and terrorized (and continue to threaten) Mukhtaran's clan and the people of the area. The court convicted six men (four rapists and two of the village jurors) and sentenced them to death on 1 September 2002. Eight other accused men were released. Mai filed an appeal with the Multan bench of the Lahore high court against the acquittal of the eight men set free on 3 September 2002.