[2][3] Although local custom would expect her to commit suicide after being raped,[4][5][6] Mā'ī spoke up and pursued a case against her rapists, which was picked up by both domestic and international media.

However, in 2005, the Lahore High Court cited "insufficient evidence" and subsequently acquitted five of the six convicted rapists, while commuting the punishment of the sixth man to a life sentence.

[10] Though the safety of Mā'ī and her family and friends has been in jeopardy since the incident,[11] she remains an outspoken advocate for women's rights in Pakistan and elsewhere.

[14] However, on 8 April 2007, The New York Times reported that Mā'ī lives in fear for her life due to threats from the Pakistani government and local feudal lords.

Mukhtaran reportedly told Attiya Inayatullah, the Women's Development Minister who gave her the cheque that she "would have committed suicide if the government had not come to her help.

[24][25] Parvez Musharraf was out of the country in Australia and New Zealand, but admitted to the press that he had placed Mukhtaran on the blacklist, because he did not "want to project a bad image of Pakistan".

She again criticized the police personnel assigned at her residence in Meerwala, saying that they had made life miserable for her and her family, and that her aide Naseem was denied exit from Mukhtaran's house.

[31] On 14 June 2005, at a press conference in Islamabad, Mukhtaran demanded removal of her name from the Exit Control List, and also complained that she was "virtually under house arrest" because of the large police contingent assigned to protect her.

[32] Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani human rights lawyer confirmed that Mukhtaran had been taken to Islamabad, furiously berated and told that Musharraf was very angry with her.

"[38] Mukhtaran's attackers, and the Mastoi of the so-called panchayat that conspired in her rape, were sentenced to death by the Dera Ghazi Khan Anti-Terror Court (ATC) in 2002.

The ATC venue was ruled appropriate in this case because the Mastoi had intimidated and terrorized (and continue to threaten) Mukhtaran's Tatla Clan and the people of the area.

[39][40] Mai filed an appeal with the Multan bench of the Lahore high court against the acquittal of the eight men set free on 3 September 2002.

Mukhtaran used the compensation money awarded by the Pakistani government as well as donations from around the world to build two local schools for girls.

Another panel is led by Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawyer and politician belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party,[45] who has been representing Mukhtaran pro bono.

[10] On 8 April 2007, The New York Times reported that Mukhtaran was living in fear for her life of the Pakistani government and local feudal lords.

[15] It also reported that Mukhtaran's friends, colleagues and their families are at great risk from violence by local feudal lords, and/or the government of Pakistan.

[50] On 11 December 2008, Mukhtaran was informed by Sardar Abdul Qayyum, the sitting Federal Minister for Defence Production, to drop the charge against the accused.

According to MMWWO employees, who were witnesses, the power company officials claimed that the raid was ordered by Abdul Qayyum Jatoi, the Federal Minister for Defense Production.

This raid has significantly hindered the ability of Mai's organization to carry out its important human rights work, providing services for vulnerable women, girls and boys.

[53] In June 2010, it was reported that Pakistan Peoples Party legislator Jamshed Dasti has threatened Mai to withdraw her appeal in the Supreme Court against the accused rapists.

Mai said in an exclusive interview to the Express Tribune that Dasti threatened her last week through his messengers in Mir Wala (Muzaffargarh) and through the supporters of Federal Minister for Defence Production, Sardar Qayyum Jatoi, whose constituency she resides in, is putting pressure on her family in various ways, for example, to remove the police check post from outside their house.

[54] On 21 April 2011, Malik Saleem, defense lawyer for the men accused of gang-raping Mukhtaran Mai under orders of the Mastoi clan, announced that five have been acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan while the sixth suspect, Abdul Khalique had his life sentence upheld.

[14] In 2009 in the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Mukhtaran was the subject of chapter 4, "Rule by Rape".