Pak rape victim says she won't let anybody tarnish her country's image

A Pakistani woman, who captured international attention for her bravery after suffering a gang rape three years ago, said on Saturday she wouldn't allow anyone to use her name to tarnish her country's image.

Mukhtar Mai's comments came a day after Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf told reporters in New Zealand that he ordered a recent travel ban on her because foreign private groups wanted to take her to America 'to
bad-mouth Pakistan' over the 'terrible state' of the nation's women.

"Pakistan is my country, and how can I allow anyone to bring (a) bad name to Pakistan," Mai, 36, told AP from Meerwala, a village in eastern Punjab province, where she was raped in June 2002

to punish her family for her brother's alleged affair with a woman.

Mai said she had no plans to settle abroad.

"I will live and die here, and I assure the president that I would never do anything against Pakistan," she said.

Mai added, however, that she would continue to demand punishment for her attackers.

She has expressed worries about the safety of her family since June 10, when a court in the eastern city of Lahore ordered the release of a dozen men detained in connection with her rape.