went beyond collective dishonoring. It was meant
to destroy or punish the fertile Muslim female body
and to destroy future generations (Sarkar 2002).
Social activists and commentators have noted the
culpability of the nation-state in cases of sexual
assault during communal riots. A report by
women’s organizations after the 2002 Gujarat riots
states: “There is evidence of State and Police com-
plicity in perpetuating crimes against women. No
effort was made to protect women. No Mahila
(women) Police was deployed. State and Police
complicity in these crimes is continuing, as women
survivors continue to be denied the right to file FIRs
(First Information Reports). There is no existing
institutional mechanism in Gujarat through which
women can seek justice” (Hameed et al. 2002, 1).
Social commentators and activists in Bangladesh
and Pakistan have similarly noted state silence and
complicity in cases of violence against minority
women during and following communal riots,
including failure to intervene in time or at all, fail-
ure to register cases of assault, and a complete
denial of the problem by state representatives (Nas-
rin 1994, Duin 2003, Shakir 2003). This leads to a
silencing of the experiences of minority women.
Social activists in all these countries have also
found that their families and their communities fur-
ther silence women because the articulation of the
experience of rape is seen as further dishonoring
the community. In situations where minority
women experience sexual or physical violence in
non-riot situations, their experience of communal-
ism and communal violence can contribute to their
silencing. For instance, following the communal
riots in 1992–3 in Mumbai, India, an activist
pointed out: “The reality of being Muslim in this
city cannot be wished away... After the riots,
women feel that their problems multiply after
going to the police” (Hasina Sheikh, cited in
Gangoli 2000, 212).
Rape, honor, and social status
The perception of women as repositories of fam-
ily and community prestige is not confined to situ-
ations of communal tension and riots. In 2002,
members of the tribal council of the Mastoi tribe in
Meerwala, Pakistan passed a decree ordering the
gang rape of a women as punishment for a crime
allegedly committed by her brother. Three mem-
bers of the Mastoi tribe aged between 11 and 14
raped her younger brother and when he protested
he was accused of raping an adult woman. The
police did not help the family and the tribal council
ordered that the sister be raped by four men as
revenge (Sarwar 2002). In cases such as these, the
south asia 703complacency of the rapists derives not only from
the culpability of the state, but also from the
inequities within the social system. The family of
the raped woman in Meerwala were poor and
socially marginalized and hence not in a position to
influence opinion or to persuade the police to assist
them. There are recorded instances of similar cases
where poor and socially marginalized women have
failed to get justice from the legal system in
Bangladesh and India; and traditional forms of jus-
tice, including village mediation systems, work
against the interests of women (Gangoli 2000).Legal systems
There is some degree of variation within the law
on sexual assault and rape in South Asia. However,
to some extent, the legal concern with defining rape
as an offence in South Asia is with regulating the
sexuality of the woman, rather than with protect-
ing her bodily integrity. To varying degrees, rape
laws in South Asia are based on, and legitimize,
patriarchal presumptions and attitudes regarding
male and female sexuality. While purporting to
provide justice to raped women, the laws in actual-
ity reinforce patterns of heterosexual dominance in
which women are seen as inferior, sexually passive,
and, within marriage, the sexual property of their
husbands.
Bangladesh has laws protecting women’s right to
life and safety. These include articles in the Penal
Code relating to rape. The Women and Children
Repression (Special Provisions) Act 2000 provides
stringent punishment for offenders. Marital rape is
criminalized in Bangladesh. However, the imple-
mentation of laws is very poor and convictions for
rape are rarely made, because women are unaware
of their rights and the legal system is misogynist
(Marcus 1993).
Pakistan is governed by the Hudood Ordinance,
which was passed in 1977 under President Zia ul-
Haq, ostensibly to bring the laws of the country
into conformity with “the injunctions of Islam”
(Quraishi 1997). Under this law, rape is termed
zinàbi-al-jabrand is based on the principle of non-
consensual penile penetration into the vagina; it
carries a penalty for the perpetrator of 25 years
imprisonment. However, this offers little support to
women as under this law, the proof required for
zinàbi-al-jabr is either a confession by the accused
or witness statements by four Muslim adult men. If
a zinàbi-al-jabr case fails for lack of witnesses or a
confession, the legal system concludes that the
intercourse was consensual and the rape victim is
charged with zinà(adultery), which is a criminal
offence. Following the Hudood Ordinance, there