Slightly cheery story - you have to salute this guy for his courage.
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=w031353A
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) - A journalist in eastern Pakistan said Sunday he will propose to a rape victim who attracted international media attention after she went public with her ordeal.
Rana Mohammed Arshad, 30, who works for a Lahore-based Urdu-language newspaper, said that in keeping with local traditions he, his mother and one of his brothers will travel to Mukhtar Mai’s village to propose to her.
Mai drew international attention when she spoke about her rape in 2002 by several men in Meerwala, a village in the eastern Punjab province of which Lahore is the capital.
She was ordered raped by a council of village elders after her brother was accused of having sex with another woman.
“It’s a serious offer. The woman has faced the world’s biggest agony. I want to share it with her,” Arshad told The Associated Press.
Arshad, who works as a sub-editor for the Insaf (Justice) daily in Lahore, also issued statements to several newspapers publicizing his offer for 33-year-old Mai’s hand. Mai works as a teacher at a school in her home village.
In August 2002, a court convicted six men over Mai’s rape and sentenced them to death, but earlier this month an appeals court overturned the conviction of five of them and commuted one man’s sentence to life imprisonment, citing lack of evidence.
However, on Friday, Pakistan’s top Islamic court reinstated the convictions, citing lack of jurisdiction by the appeals court.
Arshad said he will provide Mai the kind of protection that she will not get from anyone else. He was hopeful that Mai would accept his proposal.
“I don’t see any reason my proposal will be rejected,” he said.
In deeply conservative Pakistani families, a man’s close relatives usually propose to a woman for him.
.. as if she is obliged to accept his offer..