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Sixteen-year-old Pak girl raped, jailed in Saudi Arabia

KARACHI — Isma Mahmood’s world has come crumbling down, her hopes dashed to the ground. And all for no specific fault of her own.

Isma, 16, was deported to Pakistan last month after having served six months in shackles and handcuffs in a prison in Saudi Arabia. Her crime — being raped by a Saudi man.

“It’s difficult for me to talk about what happened to me, from rape to prison and from prison to deportation,” Isma said, in the office of a rescue trust in Karachi where she sat with her sister Muna, 18, who was also deported.

Isma’s parents, originally from the central Pakistani city of Multan, were trafficked to Saudi Arabia around 20 years ago.

“Though both of us were born there, we are Pakistanis,” Isma said.

Human rights groups say hundreds of people, particularly young women, are still trafficked from South Asia every year, with many going on to face a life blighted by physical and often sexual abuse. In Isma’s case, being born in Saudi Arabia was no help when she was raped last year in the holy city of Madinah. “I was the victim, I was raped and molested but I was named as the accused, and the man who committed the crime was not touched,” she said, hiding her face with both hands in shame.

“He first kidnapped me, dragged me into his car,” Isma said.

“At first he asked me to sleep with him and offered good money. When I refused and tried to resist, he warned me of dire consequences and raped me in the car.”

The unnamed man warned her she would be imprisoned if she went to police , and said that the Saudi sponsor who brought her parents to the country through a Pakistani agent would have them all expelled.

“I am very powerful and could declare you a bad girl. Your father’s sponsor is my friend and he will not support you,” she quoted the man as telling her.

The sponsor, too, threatened Isma and Muna, warning they would be punished unless they kept silent, she said, asking that the sponsor’s name not be revealed to spare her family any additional grief.

“I and my sister thought otherwise and we went to the police as we expected justice. But after a few hours of filing the report the police allegedly changed it,” Isma said. Under pressure from the Saudi sponsor, Isma’s parents asked her to withdraw her allegations.

“I never wanted my parents to get into trouble as they were at the mercy of the sponsor and he lived in our neighbourhood. So I did not speak much but police still put me behind bars,” she said.

“My sister Muna tried to help me out but was also arrested and put into prison only because she spoke for me.”

The women prisoners were mostly Pakistanis, Indonesians, Bangladeshis and Nigerians. “When I used to protest against the ill treatment they beat me on my back,” Isma added.

“We were chained all during this period. The only time jail officials removed the chain was during lunch or when anyone went to the bathroom or at prayer time,” she said. “Once a jail official offered me help and assured me I would be released if I agreed to sleep with him.