This is a result of Muhammad’s exoneration of his favorite wife, Aisha, who was suspected of adultery. Allah gave him a revelation requiring four male witnesses to establish such a crime: “And those who accuse honourable women but bring not four witnesses, scourge them (with) eighty stripes and never (afterward) accept their testimony – They indeed are evil-doers” (Qur’an 24:4). The problem with this is that women who accuse men of rape but cannot produce four male witnesses are often accused themselves of zina — unlawful sexual intercourse — and jailed as a result.
“Sharp rise in jail terms for Afghan rape and abuse victims,” by Dean Nelson in the Telegraph, May 21 (thanks to Pedro):
The number of Afghan women and girls jailed for fleeing sexual abuse, domestic, violence and forced marriage has increased dramatically, according to new official figures.
Statistics obtained from Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry by the campaign group Human Rights Watch reveal the number of women and girls convicted of ‘moral crimes,’ which include running away from home has increased by 50 per cent in the last year from 400 to 600.
Many of the 600 women jailed in the last year are victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse whose only crime was to run away from their assailants, the group said.
It called on the Afghan government to enforce its own Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW), and to stop its judges punishing female victims.
Although it is not a crime in Afghanistan for women to run away, the group said the country’s judges, including members of its Supreme Court, regard women who run away from their homes as criminals. Many of them who flee rapes and other assaults have been charged with seeking sex outside marriage, known as Zina in Afghanistan.
Those jailed for Zina include women and girls who have been raped or forced into prostitution, the group said.
Earlier this year Human Rights Watch released its report I had to Run Away, which revealed that half of all women and 95 per cent of girls in Afghan jails had been convicted of ‘moral crimes’ of running away or sex outside marriage.
A report by Oxfam found that 87 per cent of Afghan women had suffered sexual and physical abuse and been forced into unwanted marriages.
Earlier this year a 22 year old woman, Gulnaz, who was jailed for Zina after she was raped and impregnated by her cousin’s husband decided to marry her attacker to spare her daughter the stigma of being born out of wedlock. She had been ‘pardoned’ for her crime by President Karzai and released following an international outcry….