Multan: A gang rape victim who gained prominence for her outspoken stance on the oppression of women has given birth to a baby boy, her husband and hospital officials said yesterday.

Mukhtar Mai delivered the baby by Caesarian section two weeks prematurely in the central city of Multan, they added.

Mai, now 40, was gang raped in June 2002 on the orders of a village council as punishment after her younger brother was accused of having illicit relations with a woman from a rival clan.

The boy was just 12 years old at the time of the incident in Meerwala town in central Multan district, some 360 km southwest of the capital Islamabad.

Mai in March 2009 married police constable Nasir Abbas Gabol, who has five children from a previous marriage. “It is a good news for both of us, I feel happy like any father and I thank Allah that Mai is OK,” he said.

The baby, which is Mai’s first, was born around 4:30pm on Sunday at the private clinic of Doctor Naseem Akhtar Malik, staff nurse Asma Bibi said.



“The baby weighed 3.8 kg, both mother and child are OK,” she said.