Moslem Hi jinx

KABUL, Afghanistan —
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday pardoned an Afghan
woman serving a 12-year prison sentence for having sex out of
wedlock after she was raped by a relative.

Karzai’s office said in a statement that the woman and her attacker
have agreed to marry. That would reverse an earlier decision by the
19-year-old woman, who had previously refused a judge’s offer of
freedom if she agreed to marry the rapist.

Her plight was highlighted in a documentary that the European
Union blocked because it feared the women featured in the film
would be in danger if it were shown.

More than 5,000 people recently signed a petition urging Karzai to
release the woman. She had the man’s child while in prison and
raised her daughter behind bars, which is common among women
imprisoned in Afghanistan.

A statement released by Karzai’s office says that after hearing from
judicial officials, the decision was made to forgive the rest of the
sentence she received for having sex out of wedlock, a crime in
Afghanistan. The presidential statement did not say when the
woman was to be released or how much prison time had been pardoned.

The woman told The Associated Press in an interview last month
that she had hoped that attention generated by the EU film might
help her get released. With the film blocked, she said that she was
losing hope and considering marrying her rapist as a way out.
She said her attacker was pressuring her to stop giving interviews.

About half of the 300 to 400 women jailed in Afghanistan are
imprisoned for so-called “moral crimes” such as sex outside
marriage, or running away from their husbands, according to reports
by the United Nations and research organizations. Fleeing husbands
isn’t considered a crime in Afghanistan.

The EU welcomed the woman’s release.

“Her case has served to highlight the plight of Afghan women, who
10 years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime often continue
to suffer in unimaginable conditions, deprived of even the most
basic human rights,” the European Union’s Ambassador and Special
Representative to Afghanistan, Vygaudas Usackas, said.

He said the EU hoped the same mercy would be extended to other
women serving similar terms. Usackas said he planned to raise the
issue of Afghan women’s rights at an international conference on
Afghanistan Dec. 5 in Bonn, Germany.

Some of the most severe restrictions women faced under the Taliban,
like a ban on attending schools and having to have a male escort to
venture outside the home, were done away with when the radical
Islamic movement was driven from power in 2001, but Afghanistan
remains a deeply conservative and male-dominated society, meaning
women are still sold to husbands and rights enshrined in law are
often ignored in practice