"I think it is fair to say that anyone who has the moral courage and internal strength to turn such a brutal attack into a weapon to defend others in a similar position, is a hero indeed, and is worthy of our deepest respect and admiration," Under-Secretary-General for Communications Shashi Tharoor said while introducing Mukhtar Mai.
A tribal council in the remote village of Meerwala in Punjab provincehad ordered the gang-rape as punishment for her brother's affair with a woman from another tribe.
After the crime, which occurred in 2002 in a remote village, Mukhtar Mai refused to be cowed by traditional strictures under which she was expected to commit suicide out of shame. Instead, with the support of her immediate family, her Imam and some journalists, she took steps to ensure the full force of the law was levied against her attackers.
"Since then, she has demonstrated that she is a woman of enormous courage and conviction, by turning her horrible experience into a rallying cry against the violence and injustice that is perpetrated against disadvantaged women in many parts of the world," Tharoor said.
Moderating the event, CNN anchor Soledad O'Brian noted that after receiving a Rs 50,000 award from the Pakistani Government, Mukhtar Mai returned to her village to found a school that now has 300 girls, 200 boys, and a crisis center that advises women and girls threatened by childhood marriage and other practices, a UN news report said.
Speaking through an interpreter, the soft-spoken Mukhtar mai explained the importance of education for woman's rights. "When [I was pursuing justice], the uneducated people tried to stop me and the educated people supported me. So I thought education was important."
"My slogan is: 'End oppression with education,'" she said, pointing out that attitudes in her village have changed quite dramatically since her return.
Recognized that achievement, Tharoor, a native of India, said: "As someone who comes from a country that has also struggled to find ways to overcome dire social challenges and to end the often brutal practices of our traditional pasts without surrendering our unique history and identity, I can assure you that the obstacles that Ms Mukhtar Mai and her fellow Pakistanis face are not small, and that hers is no small achievement."