Feminist Peace Network

From The Independent (UK):

“The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has pardoned three men who had been found guilty of gang raping a woman in the northern province of Samangan.

The woman, Sara, and her family found out about the pardon only when they saw the rapists back in their village”

“Everyone was shocked,” said Sara’s husband, Dilawar, who like many Afghans uses only one name. “These were men who had been sentenced and found guilty by the Supreme Court, walking around freely.”

“A copy of the pardon was numbered, dated in May and appeared to bear the personal signature of Hamid Karzai. It recommended the men’s release because, it said, “they had been forced to confess to their crimes.”

When showed copies of the presidential pardon and court papers, President Karzai’s spokesman, Hamayun Hamidzada, was visibly shocked and said that if the documents proved genuine, Mr Karzai would be “upset and appalled.”

“The MP, Mir Ahmad Joyenda, said cases similar to Sara’s were actually becoming more common. The police and the courts, he said, were usually under the sway of local commanders. “The commanders, the war criminals, still have armed groups,” he said. “They’re in the government. Karzai, the Americans, the British sit down with them. They have impunity. They’ve become very courageous and can do whatever crimes they like.”

Sara and Dilawar are again in hiding (see original for clarification), having felt too vulnerable to stay in their village. Dilawar was prepared to discuss the case. In Afghanistan, speaking about rape means risking further dishonour, but when asked whether he minded Sara’s story being publicised, Dilawar said, “We’ve already lost our son, our honour, we’ve sold our land to pay for legal costs and we’ve lost our home – what else can we lose?”

From RAWA:

A 13-year old Afghan girl was gang-raped by nine men in Takhar

“In Talaqan (capital city of Takhar province) nine men raped a 13-year old girl. Six people, including three policemen, have been accused of being involved in the crime and detained.

The girl is named Rida and lives in the fourth district of Talaqan. She is bed-resting in her home due to the rape.

On 18 August, as she talked to PAN in her home, she said with tearful eyes, “Three days back, some distance from home, some men, a few of which wore the police cloths, came. They threw me into a police car and took me away.”

She said that she shouted a lot but there was no one to hear her voice and added, “These nine men tied up my hands and feet in a house and took me to a room.”Rida said the men gave her an alcoholic drink and then each of them raped her turn by turn. She lost her consciousness then.

She said that the men locked her in the room for three days and raped her several times.

She said that after three days she was able to escape from the house (which is near the Pul-e-Shahr Rawan of Talaqan) to the local police station of Takhar.

While shouting at the top of her lungs, she demanded the president of the country, Hamid Karzai, to hang the men who had raped her.

Rida’s mother, Masooma, also demanded from the government to sentence the criminals to death.

Masooma said that her daughter was in a bad state of health due to the crime against her.

Dr. Ashrafuddin Ayni, head of the Central Hospital of Talaqan City, also said that their medical reports prove that the girl had been raped, but said that the girl had not been in the condition to be admitted in the hospital.

Officer Ziauddin Mahmoodi, security commander of Takhar, said that six men, three of whom are policemen from Mazar-e-Sharif have been arrested.

Mahmoodi told PAN, “A man named Farid who lives in Takhar takes Rida with him with an excuse. He sits her in a car of the Mazar-e-Sharif police and then takes her to an unknown place where she is raped.”

He said that the three detained men had brought the police car with them from Balkh and were involved with Farid in the crime.

It is worth mentioning that in this year, this is the fifth case of rape of young girls in Talaqan. The worst of these was the rape of an 8-year old girl by a 20-year old man. Askar Mohammad had been sentenced to death as he had killed the girl after he had raped her.

Some men have been arrested by the police regarding the other three cases.”

Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities, Militarism, U.S. Politics, Misogyny, Gender-Based Violence, Children, Violence Against Women, Rape, Sexual Assault