A Pakistani gang rape victim who won international acclaim as a campaigner for women's rights has married a police constable Nasir Abbas Gabol in Muzaffargarh district in Punjab Sunday, the BBC reported Tuesday. Mukhtar Mai was raped by four men in her village as a punishment after her 12-year-old brother was accused of adultery in 2002. The men were arrested and sentenced to death in connection with the gang rape and are still in custody pending a retrial. Mai had said she was not sure she would ever marry. “When you get married, you have to have faith in your partner and his family. I will try to cooperate with them,” she had earlier told The Associated Press. “You know, I never said that I would not marry, I said that these things - relationships - are in the hands of Allah. I said if I got a good man I would get married. Now, as I thought fit, and with the agreement of my parents and other people, I've got married.” Mukhtar Mai is constable Gabol's second wife. The marriage was solemnized at a simple ceremony in her village, Mirwala. She first met Nasir Abbas when he was posted at the police station in the village after her gang rape in 2002. “Eighteen months ago, he sent his parents to ask me if I would marry him. I declined because I knew he was already married and I didn't want to ruin his first wife's life,” Mukhtar Mai told the BBC Urdu service. Nasir Abbas did not take his rejection well and “threatened to divorce his first wife. He also tried to commit suicide”, Mai said.
