Probably for fear of reprisals from Sharia adherents if she complains. An update on this story: “Pakistani Teen Purportedly Shown in Flogging Video Now Says It Never Happened,” from FoxNews, April 6 (thanks to all who sent this in):
A video aired widely on Pakistani television purports to show the beating of a 17-year-old girl by Taliban in the Swat Valley of Pakistan.
A Pakistani teenage girl at the center of national outrage over a video purporting to show her public flogging by the Taliban reportedly told an Islamic judge and a provincial official that the incident never happened.
The video, shown last week by Pakistani television and widely posted on the Web, shows the crying 17-year-old girl being held down by several men “” including a man identified as her brother “” as a member of the Taliban beats her.
The incident reportedly took place between two and five weeks ago in the Swat Valley village of Kala Killay. The video has sparked nationwide condemnation and demonstrations challenging the government’s decision to allow Shariah law into the Taliban-controlled region.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called for an immediate inquiry and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry “” recently restored to office “” ordered police and government officials from the north-western territory to bring the girl to court for questioning….
But the girl, identified as Chand Bibi, instead was interviewed at her home by an Islamic judge and a local government commissioner, and reportedly told them that the beating never happened.
“She requested the judge and the commissioner to spare her from appearing in the court in Islamabad,” said provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said, the Times of India reported.
Hussain said that upon questioning by the Islamic judge, she denied neighbors’ claims that she had been dragged from her home, held down and flogged. She also denied reports that she had been charged with having an illicit relationship with a local man “” who witnesses claim also was beaten “” or that the Taliban forced the two to marry, the Times reported.
Instead, Hussain said, the girl told the judge the man was her husband, and that the video was a fake distributed to disrupt the peace process in the region.
“We condemn the acts of repression against women…. But the incident depicted in the videotape never took place in Swat,” Hussain said….