Afghan man sentenced to death for reading about feminism
Here's your horrifying news of the day:
The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.
To sign a petition to save Kambaksh, click here.
UPDATE: The Afghan Senate has withdrawn its demand for the death sentence.
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Are there any reports that the US government or any government is trying to help or have they made any statements? Probably not...
Thats horrific. Whats even startling about it, is hes my age. While America was listening to the Spice Girls, Meredith Brooks and Alanis Morissette and attending Lilith Fair concerts, these people were having burqas thrown over them. Those of my generation growing up in Afghanistan lived like Jews did during the Nazi days.
I have made a petition on http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ to ask the PM to put pressure on the Afghan government (but whether they will or not, and whether the Afghans will listen if they do, who knows?) If they approve it I'll post the link here.
Signed.
Is there more we can do than sign a petition? Is anyone hooked into Amnesty International? The State Department? Anything?
With unanimous consent, the Canadian House of Commons adopted a motion today to condemn this verdict and to pressure the Afghan government to halt the execution and release Mr. Sayed Pervez Kambaksh without charges or further punishment. The text of the motion should be posted within 24 hours at www.parl.gc.ca.
Nice Lisa27
I feel physically ill about this. It doesn't feel like enough to just sign a petition. I cannot stand the thought that this man could be put to death.
Why is Bush not calling a press conference? Why does the average American not care about this? I seriously felt sick all through work today thinking of how scared this man must be and how powerless his family feels. Not to mention how scared this makes all the other progressive people in Afghanistan.
Some days it's just all too overwhelming. That our leaders could care more about oil than about human rights violations like this makes me want to scream.
I'm going to pray that the right thing is done and the government frees this man.
What great news. Before I was even able to act, the sentence had been withdrawn. How incredibly sad it would have been if he had been made to die for believing in human rights...
This is such excellent news! I'm so glad - I hope that even the little bit of effort from everyone signing the petition (the article said it received 38,000 signatures) helped.
That said, Kambasksh is still in jail (and his family is receiving death threats), so hopefully we can keep this case in the news and put pressure on the government to release him.
Jazspin makes a good point; Kambasksh is not yet cleared:
"The new stance, in which the Senate calls its previous decision 'a technical mistake', significantly raises hopes that he will eventually be freed... Mr Kambaksh can now petition the court of appeal against both his conviction and sentence, and, afterwards, the supreme court. If he fails there, he can appeal directly to Mr Karzai – who has been inundated with emails about the case – for a pardon." -from Jessica's update link
Pressure your representatives, sign the petition mentioned above, and email Mr. Karzai!
While I realize the focus here is on issues related to feminism, it should be said that this particular problem is related to a lot of other problems in Afghanistan. Notably the heavy sway that local religious courts hold outside the capital.
Hamid Karzai may be president, but his authority is nominal outside Kabul. For security many people turn to local militias. Essentially the US has been paying them to not engage in violence, and destroying poppy crops, which has only served to decrease the authority of the central government since there is now no way for a lot of people to make a living at all.
This is a larger failure of the bush administration's Afghan policy, not just a problem for women. After all, much as we like to gorget it, Afghanistan pre-1979 was actually relatively progressive as central Asian countries went. But since they were awful communists operating with the support of the USSR, the US decided to support the precursor groups to the Taliban.
Gotta love blowback.
Kambasksh is not out of the woods yet, but his case is looking better. He has very good counsel now -- I work on unrelated matters with the Afghani human rights lawyers currently representing him. The second opinion should come soon. I'll post any updates I get here.