Mukhtar Mai, a victim of a government-sanctioned gang rape in her Pakistani village of Meerwala, spoke on the importance of education in improving the status of women in Pakistan at the Red Gymnasium Friday.

"Islam doesn't say to treat your women like this," she said through translation by Amna Buttar, President and Founder of the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Human Rights. "I'm trying to convey that and I'm not alone."

The June 2002 gang rape was ordered by the Meerwala village leader as punishment for alleged sexual advances committed by Mai's 14-year-old younger brother with a village woman.

Mai and her supporters claim the advances were consensual.

Mai's brother said he was also taken to a tree and "sodomized" directly after being caught with the woman.

During her speech, Mai denounced the common misconception linking the incidents of oppression and abuse of women in the Middle East with the Islamic faith.

After the rape was brought to light by Mai's accusations, she was financially reimbursed with the American equivalent of $8,000 for her physical and emotional pain.

Holding true to her slogan to "End Oppression with Education," Mai used the money she received to build both a boys' and girls' elementary school for her village.

"I thought, 'yes, that's a lot of money, but it would only support my family for two years,'" she said. "The school would really help people … boys and girls who go to the school would [learn] what our rights are and how to treat other people."

According to Mai, there is now one boys' school and one girls' school in the Meerwala village, which enroll about 200 girls and 150 boys. The school also includes students from three surrounding villages and five teachers — some of whom walk for up to two hours to get to school.

Mai expressed the positive outlook she has for her safety as an advocate of women's rights in Pakistan as well as the hopeful future of her elementary schools after her time.

"Life and death is in God's hands," she said. "Nothing ever stops because of a loss of one person."

Mai knows the removal of sexual oppression in Pakistan will take time, but declared "the change [will] come," adding, "I think changes come slowly."

Since Mai took action against her rapists and the Meerwala village leader, she has inspired other women who fall victim to sexual oppression to speak out.

"In our region and even regions around us, there have been such cases where women have taken their rapists to the [local] court," she said.

Buttar, a key figure in the organization of Mai's visit to Madison, said Mai "has really become an activist, a human rights defender and a hero."

UW sophomore Muzammil Hussain, who found out about Mai's visit only a day before the event, was happy such an important international figure was coming to Madison and expressed enthusiasm for both her and her cause.

"I thought a lot of what the main speaker, Mukhtar Mai, had said was something that really needs awareness," he said. "And I'm glad that her voice is being heard."

Mai, who was named one of Glamour Magazine's 12 "Women of the Year," was the first speaker of the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Human Rights seminar series, "I Can Survive."