Here is the problem: even at face value, the statement is vague and non-committal, but while those words would mean one thing in the American legal system, they mean quite another in Afghanistan. Officials surely believed they were properly applying the law and upholding Gulnaz' "rights." The question becomes: whose law is being applied? Sharia is enshrined as the highest law of the land in Afghanistan according to the current constitution.
Women like Gulnaz who make allegations of rape may be expected to produce four witnesses in accordance with the Qur'an's standards for proving a sexual crime (24:13), or they run the risk that all they have done is admitted to having sex.
The ridiculous burden of proof for establishing the crime of rape is a major reason why Gulnaz and so many others like her are in jail. Indeed, half of the women in Afghan jails are there for "moral crimes." Communities in Afghanistan are enforcing Sharia, and Kabul will not contradict them.
An update on this story. "Nearly 5,000 sign petition calling for release of Afghan rape victim," by Nick Paton Walsh for CNN, November 27:
Kabul (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai received a petition Sunday with nearly 5,000 names endorsing a plea for the immediate release of a rape victim who has been jailed because of her attack and is being forced to marry her rapist.
Kim Motley, a lawyer for 21-year-old Gulnaz, said the palace received the petition, which gathered 4,751 names in just over 48 hours, on Sunday afternoon. The petition comes with an official plea for clemency addressed to the president, who has the power to immediately pardon Gulnaz, currently in jail for adultery because her attacker was married at the time of the attack.
Gulnaz was sentenced to 12 years after the attack as her rapist was married though that term was recently reduced to three years.
Gulnaz's plight gained international attention when the European Union blocked the broadcast of a documentary made about her ordeal saying that it would further jeopardize her safety.
Gulnaz was raped two years ago by her cousin's husband but did not immediately report the attack, fearing reprisals from elements of Afghanistan's conservative society. Yet she conceived a child from the rape, and went to police after showing signs of pregnancy.
She is now raising the daughter in jail and has agreed to marry her attacker in order to be released and legitimize her daughter. She also fears attack from her rapist's relatives, something he denies is a risk.
A spokesman for the attorney general, Rahmatullah Naziri, told CNN last week that her sentence had been reduced to three years, leaving about a year to serve. He explained that while the original sentence for adultery was reduced, she had failed to report her rape quickly enough and would have to serve further time in jail for that offense.
No trial, apparently; just another alleged crime and more prison time tacked on.
The U.S. State Department, while not explicitly calling for Gulnaz's release, said in a statement Thursday: "Gulnaz's situation is one no woman should have to face. Our heartfelt condolences go out to Gulnaz and her young daughter. We expect Afghan prosecutors to properly apply the law while also upholding Gulnaz's rights."
the only law is Sharia to be applied. If rapist is found guilty stone him to death in front of public so shall they get a lesson. The rotten western laws are obsolete.
If she had been lucky, she would have been born as a non-muslim in a non-muslim country. Then she would have got :
1. Justice for herself in courts;
2. She could have secured her child's future by working and raising her child as a single mother
3. Severe punishment for her rapist.
But alas, she happens to be a muslim woman living in a muslim country and cannot get justice from horrible sharia laws.
According to sharia law, a rape victim can inreality NEVER prove she is innocent of adultery or fornication and thus she ends up being stoned as well!
our "western" laws may be "rotten" and need to be tweaked now and then, but sharia law is basically and completely EVI, an apartheid system that is biased against women and non muslims.
sorry that should read EVIL
The reality of Sharia law is not that the man will be stoned, when is the last time you saw that happen, but that an innocent woman will be held in prison. Sharia law and its burdensome requirement of 4 witnesses to sexual crimes is ridiculous. As a cop for 16yrs. I can count on one hand the number of rapes that had even 1 witness. This "law" puts the women in an impossible situation. Islam is a religion that started with rape and it continues to this day. Sharia law does no justice. After being raped and then forced to marry your rapist is truly idiotic. God have mercy on women trapped in Muslim countries.
You've overlooked one thing - under your scenario she would have been denied the "right" to be raped in the first place. Islam honors women, remember???
Hillary acting on Obama's orders.
I suppose the Eichmann defense would apply.
The standard of law in the U.S. is reasonableness, what a reasonable person would do or think. The standard of law in Islam (enforced by Sharia law) is what Mohammad did and said recorded in the Sunna (haddith/sira). Women have no real "rights" under Sharia, only the mandate that they can be beaten, raped, and murdered by their husbands and other Muslim men and that women are responsible for the actions of men against them. Islam is a domestic violence abuser's dream. Here we have a situation, typical in Islam, where the woman is jailed for being raped because she cannot produce four male (it would have to be eight female witnesses as Mohammad declared women are half that of men and deficient in reason) witnesses that it was rape. Of course, even if she marries her rapist all he has to do is accuse her of sexual impropriety (e.g., standing too close to a man or talking to a man) and on the strength of the accusation alone (she would not even be allowed to defend herself under Sharia as it is considered inappropriate for a woman to talk about sexual things in public), he could have her stoned to death.
us officials are full of it. they are playing PC. women have no rights in Afghanistan. period.
M
By enabling the totally conquered Afghanistan and Iraq to establish and ratify Islamist constitutions and declare themselves 'Islamic States', the USA committed the greatest strategic blunder of the last 50 years. THis mindless act of appeasment has rendered irrelevant the trillions of dollars and many thousands of lives squandered in these senseless conflicts. It is the equivalent of enabling a defeated Germany to embrace the Nazi party and base the constitutuion on Nazi principles in 1946.
There are no longer any great men in the governments of the west. We have a vast military guided by mental and moral midgets.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
quasi-islam or pervert-muslims are doomed to a devil's hell.
The repulsive "Afghan Knight" wrote:
the only law is Sharia to be applied. If rapist is found guilty stone him to death in front of public so shall they get a lesson. The rotten western laws are obsolete.
..................................
What an appalling barbarian this vile Mohammedan is.
If it weren't for the minimally civilizing presence of Americans and other Westerners in Afghanistan, this poor rape victim would already have been stoned to death, just as it was under the Taliban.
They'll be back at it as soon as we pull out—and "Afghan Knight" will consider such bloody savagery the "glory of Islam".
Well, ain't muzzzz women burkaed and veiled so that they won't make muzzzzz men "blood presssure" go up?
So how come they get raped anyway? And by "good" muzzz, no less?
See AK: izlam is fondamentally rotten...