The U.S. State Department Wednesday criticized Pakistan for refusing to allow a rape victim to travel to the United States.
"The United States expects Pakistan's leaders to honor their pledge to protect the basic human rights of their citizens, including the freedom to travel," department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The woman, Mukhtar Mai, was gang raped in 2002 on the orders of a traditional village council. She was to travel to the United States to discuss the work of crisis centers that she set up to work with rape victims.
A court recently freed her attackers.
The government of Pakistan had put her a list of people banned from traveling abroad and McCormack said that after discussions on the issue, Islamabad removed Mai from that list.
In Islamabad, the official Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan telling the National Assembly Mai could travel wherever she wanted.
"She is free to go anywhere," he said.
McCormack said Mai met with U.S. Embassy officials in Islamabad Wednesday, and called her "a courageous woman."
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
