Teh One Who Knocks
12-01-2011, 05:57 PM
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pardoned a rape victim who was jailed for adultery after she apparently agreed to marry her attacker.
BBC News Asia
http://i.imgur.com/O0oDt.jpg
The woman, named as Gulnaz, gave birth in prison to a daughter who has been kept in jail with her.
Human rights groups say hundreds of women in Afghan jails are victims of rape or domestic violence.
Gulnaz's lawyer told the BBC she hoped the government would allow Gulnaz the freedom to choose who to marry.
"In my conversations with Gulnaz she told me that if she had the free choice she would not marry the man who raped her," said Kimberley Motley.
The case has drawn international attention to the plight of many Afghan women 10 years after the overthrow of the Taliban.
Earlier this month, Gulnaz told the BBC that after she was raped she was charged with adultery.
"At first my sentence was two years," she said. "When I appealed it became 12 years. I didn't do anything. Why should I be sentenced for so long?"
The most recent appeal saw her sentence reduced to three years.
'Marriage with conditions'
News of Gulnaz's release came in a statement from the presidential palace.
It said a meeting of the judiciary committee had "discussed the issue of rape... and the issue of her imprisonment".
"As the both sides [Gulnaz and the rapist] have agreed to get married to each other with conditions, respective authorities were tasked to take action upon it according to Islamic Shariah [law]," it said.
"The president ordered the office of administrative affairs and the secretariat of the council of ministers to make the decree of Gulnaz's release."
The attack on Gulnaz was brought to light by her pregnancy. Her attacker - her cousin's husband - was jailed for 12 years, later reduced on appeal to seven years.
The European Union recently blocked the release of a documentary on Afghan women jailed for so-called "moral crimes".
The EU said it decided to withdraw the film - which it commissioned and paid for - because of "very real concerns for the safety of the women portrayed".
Human rights workers say the injustice in the Afghan judicial system should be exposed.
Half of Afghanistan's women prisoners are inmates for "zina" or moral crimes.
BBC News Asia
http://i.imgur.com/O0oDt.jpg
The woman, named as Gulnaz, gave birth in prison to a daughter who has been kept in jail with her.
Human rights groups say hundreds of women in Afghan jails are victims of rape or domestic violence.
Gulnaz's lawyer told the BBC she hoped the government would allow Gulnaz the freedom to choose who to marry.
"In my conversations with Gulnaz she told me that if she had the free choice she would not marry the man who raped her," said Kimberley Motley.
The case has drawn international attention to the plight of many Afghan women 10 years after the overthrow of the Taliban.
Earlier this month, Gulnaz told the BBC that after she was raped she was charged with adultery.
"At first my sentence was two years," she said. "When I appealed it became 12 years. I didn't do anything. Why should I be sentenced for so long?"
The most recent appeal saw her sentence reduced to three years.
'Marriage with conditions'
News of Gulnaz's release came in a statement from the presidential palace.
It said a meeting of the judiciary committee had "discussed the issue of rape... and the issue of her imprisonment".
"As the both sides [Gulnaz and the rapist] have agreed to get married to each other with conditions, respective authorities were tasked to take action upon it according to Islamic Shariah [law]," it said.
"The president ordered the office of administrative affairs and the secretariat of the council of ministers to make the decree of Gulnaz's release."
The attack on Gulnaz was brought to light by her pregnancy. Her attacker - her cousin's husband - was jailed for 12 years, later reduced on appeal to seven years.
The European Union recently blocked the release of a documentary on Afghan women jailed for so-called "moral crimes".
The EU said it decided to withdraw the film - which it commissioned and paid for - because of "very real concerns for the safety of the women portrayed".
Human rights workers say the injustice in the Afghan judicial system should be exposed.
Half of Afghanistan's women prisoners are inmates for "zina" or moral crimes.