Have you heard or read about the sister of a young man who had a “relationship” with a girl of a higher class in Pakistan? The young couple broke a taboo on class mixing.  The village court, a tribal entity composed of “elders”, solved the problem by appointing a group of four men to RAPE his older sister.  Pleas to spare her and admit the injustice of the decision of the elders of the village were not listened to.  After the rape was reported to the police the government awarded her $8,200.

Punishing a victim one more time is the answer resorted to by followers of tradition and mind-sets that cannot see injustice they do by “elders” entrusted to regulate civil affairs.  This is very much like the pleas of people in Florida’s “villages” that their voting mechanisms were not working properly – and the outcome was that we must accept the wrong person as leader and we must allow that leader’s pronouncements – no matter how absurd – to continue to guide our lives.

The sister was punished for the court’s culturally correct decision. Higher authorities belatedly set out to punish the four who were selected to do the rape.  The young class-mixed couple will have been censured but the court will not be corrected nor disbanded nor punished for the inhuman decision it made. They, the court, are exempt for bad decisions.

There is a lethargy or sluggishness in correcting bad decisions.  Grumbles are heard and there is whispering how terrible the situation is.  But our courts and executives are in place and we cannot see how to prevent victims from being punished yet again.

We have punished a people, the Afghans, for the depredations of the Taliban as hosts for Osama bin Laden.  His family in Saudi Arabia may have disowned him but there are Saudis who have supported the Taliban and bin Laden and who were involved in September 11th.  The mechanism is in place and - we cannot prevent ourselves from being punished again. The tribal elders have spoken.