ISLAMABAD, 19 September 2005 — President Pervez Musharraf denied Saturday telling the Washington Post that many Pakistanis felt crying rape was an easy way to make money and get a Canadian visa, saying the remark was made by someone else. One of the newspaper’s writers stood by the article.
The comments, published on Tuesday during Musharraf’s visit to the United States, sparked outrage in Pakistan and elsewhere.
“I never said that and it has been misquoted,” Musharraf said while addressing a gathering of women in New York.
“These are not my words and I would go to the extent of saying I am not so silly and stupid to make comments of this sort,” he said in remarks to the forum recorded by private Pakistani television channel Geo.
In an interview with CNN he said the remarks were made by someone else in his presence and not him.
The Washington Post quoted Musharraf as saying: “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.”
One of the authors of Tuesday’s article told the BBC News website the president had been quoted word for word. “The president’s comments were tape-recorded and they were quoted verbatim and in context,” Glenn Kessler said.
The Post’s report sparked outrage among women’s groups and liberals in Pakistan as well as abroad, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin raised the matter with Musharraf during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Musharraf told the forum of Pakistani-American women that he was committed to fighting violence against women.
“Let me commit here wholeheartedly that I stand totally on the side of women, in women’s support, to struggle against violence and to struggle for gender equality,” he said.
Rape is prevalent particularly in rural areas of Pakistan, but media have become more active in following up stories since a notorious gang rape generated massive publicity at home and abroad when the victim spoke out about her ordeal.
Mukhtaran Mai, now an icon for human rights in Pakistan, was gang-raped three years ago on the orders of a village council after her brother, then 12, was judged to have befriended a woman of a powerful clan.
