Sentenced to death: Afghan who dared to read about women's rights

[AutumnMist]

A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country's rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after "liberation" and under the democratic rule of the West's ally Hamid Karzai.

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.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sentenced-to-death-afghan-who-dared-to-read-about-womens-rights-775972.html

[1corona4u]

1. Unbelieveable...

[Kutjara]

2. As George Packer wrote in "The Assassin's Gate"...

...the neocons never gave a damn about installing democracy in the countries they invaded, they merely wanted to advance US "vital interests" at all costs. It was never about liberating the Afghans or the Iraqis; it was about making the region more amenable to US corporate exploitation. Repressive Islam can do that just as easily as liberal democracy. We're allies with Saudi Arabia, after all.

[WinkyDink]

14. The author may have facts, figures, and statistics, but this was as plain as day.

[Kutjara]

16. Absolutely, but it's still instructive to see...

...just how blatant the PNAC clowns were about it. They published paper after paper in journals like "Foreign Affairs," throughout the 80s and 90s, basically saying, "screw the ragheads. Let's just steal their oil." Yet Bushies get all upset when anyone suggests greed might be one of their motivations.

[rodeodance]

3. ohmygawd!!

[FunkyLeprechaun]

4. I was wondering if anyone wrote about this

I only read about this yesterday in my Independent. Today they did an appeal to save him. It's appalling that this has happened in a country that we supposedly liberated.

If we hadn't gone to Iraq, we would have controlled Afghanistan better PLUS catching top Al Qaeda officials. But NO, we had to go to Iraq.

This will look bad to Bush, definitely.

[ZombieHorde]

5. Thanks for the heads up.

I signed the petition.

[riderinthestorm]

6. Afghanistan is a failed state. Regardless of what the MSM says, Afghanistan is royally fucked.

And we did this.

This failed nation is our doing. Women's rights were always fucked there but now Afghanistan has our stamp of approval and so the perpetuation of these heinous abuses is laid squarely at our doorstep.

I am sick when I dwell on what we have done to Afghan women.

Hello?! Bush Admin?! Are any of your goons listening? You are all sick fucks.

[annm4peace]

7. RAWA asks us to email those in power in Afganistan

Call your senators.

from a Afgan Woman's rights group.

http://www.rawa.org/events/parwiz_e.htm

Declare Your Strong Support for Immediate Release of Young Afghan Journalist Parwiz Kambakhsh

The criminals who are in power in Afghanistan have imprisoned Parwiz Kambakhsh, a young journalist, since October 2007 in Balkh province - Northern Afghanistan. He is threatened to be hanged by the dark-minded and ignorant judges in the medieval courts of Afghanistan. The accusations are so ridiculous and injudicious that they make any freedom-loving person want to stand and say enough is enough. Mr. Kambakhsh is accused of printing/distributing an article from the Internet, which points out controversial verses of the Quran regarding women’s rights. The book “Religion in the History of Civilization” (by Will Durant) taken from his living room has been kept as an evidence against him in the court!

In a country where for the last six years there are many claims regarding “democracy”, “human rights”, and “freedom of press”, the religious fascists have their grip on justice and try every possible way to mute anyone who criticizes or comments about the Northern Alliance criminals.

Imprisonment of Parwiz Kambakhsh is not only for his enlightening articles in a local newspaper, Jahan-e-Now (The New World), but also because of his brother Yaqub Ibrahimi, who is a well-known, brave and realistic reporter and exposed many criminal faces from Jehadi mafia in Northern Afghanistan to the world public.

The Jehadi criminals, who could not silence Ibrahimi, now try to pursue a traitorous agenda by unlawfully imprisoning his brother in order to hush him.

The Religious Scholars Council of Balkh province who have never condemned the criminal acts of the fundamentalist warlords in the north, now disgracefully issued a verdict for the execution of Parwiz Kambakhsh.

Above everything, the shocking detention of Mr. Kambakhsh is a great disgrace for Mr. Karzai and his Western patrons who decorated the notorious criminals in pants and ties and brought them in power under the guise of “democrats”. Now Mr. Karzai says he is not as powerful to control them.

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) kindly asks all freedom-loving individuals and organizations who believe in human rights and democracy to stand up against the unjust imprisonment of Parwiz Kambakhsh, and ask for his immediate release. Only your strong support for justice and freedom can stop the mediaeval acts of the Afghan government and its allies, which are in the style of the brutal Iranian regime.

Please email your protest letters to:

Presidential Office:
[email protected]


United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
[email protected]


The Supreme Court of Afghanistan
[email protected]


You may also send protest letters to Afghan embassy in your country.

[ConsAreLiars]

8. Before Brzezinski /Carter/Reagan/Kissinger Afghanistan was a "relatively" tolerant country.

Hardly a bastion of enlightenment, but the odds of being murdered for being some sort of "unbeliever" were about the same as being murdered by the Xtian fanatics here for providing abortion services or advocating civil rights for blacks, or being killed for opposing the slaughter of the Vietnamese. A very poor country, not highly educated, quite the contrary, and the oppression of women, illustrated every day by the burka, was far beyond anything I had even imagined possible. But, at the same time, the tribals at the bottom end and the educated elite at the top went around with no more covering than the traditional women of Catholic countries like Spain. And foreigners were also exempt and tolerated.

The point, made briefly, is simply that the intolerance of the current regime and the domination of the religious is the direct result of a deliberate plan by the US to turn this poor land into a square on "the great chessboard" and to promote, fund, and support that sort of hateful ideology. They reap what "we" sowed.

[NNN0LHI]

10. Iran wasn't known for religious fanaticism before we stuck our nose in there either

We do reap what we sow.

Don

[riderinthestorm]

9. Morning kick. nt

[Cass]

11. All this blather about spreading democracy and freedom is a bunch of bull.

It is unbelieveable that this is happening 6 years after we invaded that country and boast of bringing freedom and democracy to Afghanistan.

CNN recently aired a special about life for Afghanistan's women (Behind the Veil was its title I believe) which was deeply disturbing and depressing. We failed miserably in Afghanistan. We accomplished very little - the Taliban is re-emerging, OBL is still on the loose, and the Afghan people are still horribly oppressed. The whole thing is a clusterf* of the highest order.

[kurth]

12. Afghanistan is an enormous success

"We will succeed in Iraq, just like we did in Afghanistan. We will stand up a new government under an Iraqi-drafted constitution. We will defeat that insurgency, and, in fact, it will be an enormous success story." - Evil Dick, June 23, 2005

[Eric J in MN]

13. Write Hamid Karzai with this easy form

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=9773

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. The war in Afghanistan had nothing to do with Bin Laden & terror, but to get a pipeline built.

http://www.ringnebula.com/Oil/Timeline.htm