"Ali, who did not want his last name used, said his mother was against the abortion, though she did not try to prevent it."
Keeping up appearances.
More on this story. "Afghan held for sister's alleged ad hoc abortion," by Amir Shah and Heidi Vogt for the Associated Press, January 9:
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The mother and brother of a 14-year-old girl who was raped are facing prosecution for allegedly performing an abortion on her in a cattle shed in central Afghanistan, officials said.
The brother, who has been arrested by police, has confessed to cutting her stomach open with a razor blade and removing and burying the fetus. He has said he acted alone. The mother has not yet been detained because she lives in a remote area, several hours' drive from the provincial capital, Provincial Police Chief Ewaz Khan said.
The girl was in critical condition Friday at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, having been flown there the night before for treatment, said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Bagram doctors said the girl had been about five months pregnant when she underwent the "traumatic c-section," according to Mathias.
The abortion was performed about nine days ago, using no anesthesia. The incisions were stitched up with a thick string usually used to sew up potato sacks, said Gulam Mohammad Nader, one of the doctors who treated the girl in the provincial capital. He said the wound became dangerously infected.
The girl's 20-year-old brother, Ali, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from prison that he now regretted his actions.
"I had thought it was simple," he said. Ali, who did not want his last name used, said his mother was against the abortion, though she did not try to prevent it.
Mohammad Nasir Fayaz, administrative head of the district where the family lives, said the girl told him that her mother was involved.
The mother could not be reached for comment. It was not clear if the two had obtained lawyers yet.
Abortion is illegal in Afghanistan except if the mother's health is in danger. Even in those cases, a panel of three doctors has to approve the operation, said Dr. Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the health ministry.
Families in the deeply conservative country — where there are strong taboos against sex outside of marriage — often got to extreme lengths to conceal rape, which can destroy a victim's reputation and future. Girls who are raped have little chance of ever getting married and married women are often shunned by their husbands. The victim and her family are tainted with the shame of the act and the woman is often accused of having consented to the sex.
In line with the Qur'an's requirement of four male witnesses to confirm a rape has occurred.
"I told my sister that this was bad for us, for our family, and bad for the community," Ali told the AP.
Nader said the girl told him that she had not known her mother and brother's plan when they took her into the cattle shed. She said the two of them wrestled her to the ground and held her down while they cut her stomach open. She blacked out for much of the ordeal, but she said she remembered seeing her brother hold up the fetus.
Police have recovered the body of the fetus and the man suspected in the rape is in custody, Khan said.
The ad hoc abortion was discovered when the girl failed to recover after about four days at home and her father brought her to a small hospital near their village, Nader said. The father told doctors there she had been attacked by a dog, but physicians discovered the truth upon examining her.
A doctor there called provincial health officials who told them to get her to Bamiyan as quickly and quietly as possible.
"I told him to keep it low profile, because I was worried they (the parents) would kill her" to keep it quiet, said Ihsanullah Shahir, the head of the province's health department. She arrived at Bamiyan hospital Tuesday.
Nader, the physician, said she had been flow to Bagram because Bamiyan Hospital did not have specialized equipment needed to repair damage done to her internal organs.
This is where Sharia will take us if we are not alert and aware. The mother's involvement is so sickening as to be inconceivable to the Western mind. I find myself bringing up the topic of Islam in conversation with fammily and friends more and more frequently. the lack of understanding of the true nature of this twisted cult among average people is truly astonishing.
I guess I should not be surprised, like Tommy, "I became aware this year".
"I had thought it was simple," he said
This is the basis of his remorse?
He thought it was simple????
Fiendish is a better word...The mother's role was...I can't think of a strong enough word for her...She is more evil than her son...
Typical Mohammadan logic applied in yet another tragic event...
There's that adjective again...conservative, "this deeply conservative country..."
The AP (Always Political) has to apply the conservative label to a society where honour killings, acid disfigurings, and rapes are common.
If just one of these incidents were reported every day in America, there'd be a turning tide.
It's amazing to me that her family didn't murder her for the shame of having been raped.
Wonder how that slipped by their Islam-soaked minds?
This is Afghanistan where females are chattle and female movement/exposure is totally under male relative's control. . .in the US, fetal dna would reveal which male relative raped this child.
"in the US, fetal dna would reveal which male relative raped this child."
I'd put cash on the barrelhead it was the self-taught surgeon brother.
How much money have we spent in Afghanistan?
Very nice slip of the pen there, miira (if indeed it was a slip); "chattle" for chattel, thereby incorporating chattel & cattle neatly in one package!
And very good question, tanstaafl.
What amazes me is that the girl is alive at all, nine days after being butchered like that.
And yeah: like Marwan's Daughter, I'm a complete cynic, I'd be prepared to bet that the brother raped his own little sister.
I recall, some time ago, a story from out of the so-called 'palestinian territories', Arab-occupied Judea and Samaria, of an Arab Muslim girl who was 'honor murdered' by her mother...because the poor kid had been raped, and impregnated, by the girl's own brothers.
Mama-from-Hell would never think of punishing the dear boys.
Talk about a "back alley abortion"...
Where are the NOW gang on this?
Where is the outrage?
Non existant Just as I thought...
DIY obstetrics - Mohammedan style! No wonder, he thought it was simple. Like filling a tank of gas, or changing a light bulb
Marwans daughter & DDA, it wouldn't surprise me either, but the above story does say that the rape suspect is in custody. Of course, shariah being shariah, chances are he'll be let off due to lack of 4 witnesses.
Brother Ali is in custody, and the man suspected in the rape is in custody. Hmmm.........perhaps they are one and the same?
Abortion is illegal in Afghanistan except if the mother's health is in danger.
My irony meter just exploded.
Sorry about the mess.
L.Drummond
I think the brother's stomach should be sliced open and his testicles removed from the inside.
"Mama-from-Hell would never think of punishing the dear boys."
Of course not. This female's entire status in the world, and probably her bare existence, depends upon males and her relationship to them.
As Islam was forced upon Afghanistan during the waves of violent conquest, one imagines that Arab customs, viewpoints, and expectations have affected them as well. In Arabic, the honorific "Umm" ("Mother of") is apparently applied only to females who have produced male offspring:
"45. What does the title Umm or Abu mean as part of a name?
It is a common way of calling someone using their oldest son's name. Umm means mother of. Abu means father of. "Umm Muhammad" is "mother of Muhammad." This is what friends might call her, as a sign of respect."
From http://www.freep.com/legacy/jobspage/arabs/arab5.html Detroit Free Press, “100 Questions and Answers about Arab Americans: A Journalist’s Guide”
When you have no respectful name in the world unless you have been successfully bred with, and produced, a male child, I imagine you'll stop at nothing to keep that status.
" I told my sister that [her pregnancy] was bad for us, for our family, and bad for the community "
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Well, dang, if she'd only known THAT, she wouldn't have let the b@st@*d rape her! (Can that really be this dimbulb's perspective?)
Islam: worse than Ebola - those infected with it lose their souls, not just their lives....
There are times when I simply cannot express how horrified I am.