I don't get it

Human rights groups are freaking out over this:

Mr Musharraf reportedly said some Pakistanis believed rape was a ticket to escape the country.

"It was shocking to read that General Musharraf had publicly aired his low opinion of women...," opposition MP Sherry Rehman said about Mr Musharraf's comments in an interview with the Washington Post this week.

"This is very frivolous way of looking at rape cases in the country," human rights activist Kamila Hyat said.

Mr Musharraf made the comments after being asked about the high-profile case of Mukhtaran Mai, who was gang raped on the orders of a tribal council in 2002 as punishment for her brother's alleged love affair with a woman from another tribe.

Her treatment by the Pakistani Government, which tried to bar her from addressing US rights groups about her ordeal, earned the conservative Islamic country international wrath.

"You must understand the environment in Pakistan," Mr Musharraf said to the Washington Post.

"This has become a money-making concern. A lot of people say if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped," he said.

Mr Musharraf, a general who seized power in 1999, later said he had been quoting someone else, Pakistani media reported.

But "it is true that the issue is used to defame Pakistan," the Dawn daily quoted him as telling reporters in New York.

Mr Musharraf banned Ms Mai, 33, from addressing US rights groups reportedly because he thought it would give Pakistan bad publicity. He later lifted the ban under pressure from Washington.

I've read some about Mai's case before and I would have to agree that her treatment by the Pakistani government has been shameful.  All the same, I don't see how Mussharraf's is either frivolous of demeaning to women.  Given the conditions in some parts of Pakistan and the treatment of women in some of the tribal regions, his statement doesn't seem entirely implausible.  That's much more of a condmentation of the treatment of women in Pakistan than it is of the women in that country.

I really don't understand why people find this statement so horrific.  I also wonder why they're resorting to lashing out at Mussharraf rather than attempting to debunk his statement.

Comments

[Doug Barber]

There's also this obvious question for anyone advocating a "topple Mussharraf" US foreign policy: "Is it rational to expect Pakistanis to replace him with someone more respectful of human rights as we understand them in the non-Muslim world?" I think not.

[SloganMurugan]

What else can Musharaff do? Poor dude, one of the troubles of being a dictator is that he gets mauled for something a legit legal system or house of law makers should have handled.