Punishing Victims

A young boy was sent to jail in Afghanistan recently - for having sex with two men in a public park.

The adults involved were not jailed and apparently got off Scot-free - only the boy fell foul of the courts and the country's religious laws, such as they are.

Apparently, Afghanistan has no age of consent and the boy was charged under laws banning sex outside marriage - which are often used to jail sex abuse victims including many women.

So the boy became a victim twice over - once at the hand of skanky men - and secondly by Afghan society which you might otherwise expect to look after his interests.

A human rights worker in Afghanistan said:

“When a man has sex with a 13-year-old child, the child is a victim of rape, not a criminal offender. The Afghan Government should never have victimised this boy a second time, but instead should have released him immediately with urgent protection and assistance.

Treating boys who have been raped as criminals undermines all government efforts to protect children from abuse.”

Meanwhile and elsewhere it has been reported that the young Afghan woman - Gulnaz - who was originally jailed for having sex outside marriage, i.e. being raped by her male attacker - has reluctantly agreed to marry he rapist, the father of her child.

Because she had become an outcast in her own 'community' for refusing to do so - and has now decided that being married to her attacker was in the best interests of her child.

President Karzai (11 December 2011)

I'm pleased to see that the President of Afghanistan - Hamid Karzai - appears to have been reading the blog site.

Last month I posted an article about a young Afghan woman - Gulnaz - who was sentenced to 12 years in a Kabul prison with her baby - after being attacked and raped by family relative.

To add insult to injury the young woman was told she could be released early from jail - if she agreed to marry her attacker - the father of the child.

But suddenly last week Gulnaz was officially pardoned by the President Karzai and released from jail - so maybe all hope is not lost after all.

In certain parts of Afghanistan and certainly amongst religious fundamentalists - Afghan women are treated like cattle - beasts of burden to be bought and sold.

For anyone interested in finding out more I would suggest reading two books - The Bookseller of Kabul a non-fition work by Åsne Seierstad - and A Thousand Splendid Suns a novel by Khaled Hosseini.

I wonder if President Karzai has read them - and if he recognises the need to do much more to promote and protect the rights of women in Afghanistan?

Because while it's great news that Gulnaz has now been released - it's a disgrace and an insult to human dignity that she was ever sent to jail in the first place.

Afghanistan (November 26th 2011)

I read a depressing article last week which made me stop and think - whether Afghanistan has been worth all the sacrifices people have made - since the days of the Taleban.

Because the story involved a young 19 year-old woman - Gulnaz - who was raped and made pregnant by her attacker - who was duly reported to the police.

But instead of receiving any help from the authorities - Gulnaz was charged with adultery and sentenced to 12 years in jail with her infant daughter - in Kabul the Afghan capital.

The judge who sent Gulnaz to prison said that she would be released early from her 12 year sentence - if she agreed to marry the man who attacked and raped her - her attacker was also jailed.

After spending 18 months in jail with her infant daughter - Gulnaz finally relented and gave in to this despicable blackmail: "I had no choice", she said. "I did it for my daughter".

Supporters of Gulnaz commissioned a film to highlight this terrible abuse in Afghanistan - where women have the status of cattle - yet the documentary will not be shown because of fear of reprisals.

Now that may be the reality on the ground.

But it does beg the question:

How can all the fighting and huge resources poured into Afghanisatan be justified - if a young woman can be treated in this way in Kabul - right under the nose of the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai?