November 16, 2006

Pakistan Rape Victims Get Break …

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Here’s what passes for progress in the Islamic world these days: Pakistan has repealed a law that required rape victims to produce four witnesses to prove that a crime had been committed against them. Failing that, the victims could be charged with adultery – as several thousand have been since the law was imposed in 1979. The issue has been highlighted by the dogged fight of Mukhtar Mai, a village woman who was gang-raped in 2002 and then had the temerity to try to get her attackers prosecuted. Naturally, she now has a blog.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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