A Pakistani woman whose gang rape in her native village sparked an international outcry, was honored at the United Nations for becoming a leading womens rights advocate.

"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," UN Under Secretary General for Communications Shashi Tharoor said as he introduced Mukhtaran Mai.

She was invited by Secretary General Kofi Annan and Pakistans UN Mission.

Tharoor noted that after her 2002 ordeal in the rural village of Meerwala in Punjab province, Mai, with the support of her immediate family and her imam and some journalists, moved to ensure her attackers face the full force of the law.

"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 added.

Mai was gang-raped on the orders of a tribal council as punishment for her brother's alleged affair with a woman from another tribe.

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