|
Afghan woman stoned to death
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
April 27, 2005
Peshawar - An Afghan woman was stoned to death in the northeastern Badakhshan
province on the basis of a Fatwa (decree) issued by religious scholars after
reportedly finding her guilty of adultery.
Confirming the incident, an Afghan government spokesman said in Kabul that it
was being investigated. The Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan said in a
statement that local Ulema gave the Fatwa for stoning her to death. It added
that this was second incident of its kind in mountainous Badakhshan, which
borders Tajikistan and Pakistan’s northern Chitral district.
The incident took place in Urgo district in Badakhshan. The woman wasn’t
identified.
Badakhshan is the home province of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani,
who is leader of the Jamiat-i-Islami, an Islamic party with some support among
ethnic Tajiks. Even now, those occupying main seats of power in Badakhshan are
loyal to Rabbani and his party.
Badakhshan was also one of the few provinces that Taliban were never able to
conquer. Late mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Masood, who was also nominally
part of Rabbani’s Jamiat-i-Islami, also enjoyed support in Badakhshan. Shariat,
or Islamic law, was partly enforced in Badakhshan by Afghan mujahideen groups
that took over after the collapse of Dr Najibullah’s communist regime in April
1992.
The stoning of women charged with adultery has taken place in presence of more
than 30,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s National Army has also
grown to more than 32,000 and the country’s police are now almost 40,000-member
strong. The Taliban, whose collapse after the US military invasion in October
2001 brought most warlords back into power, also used to stone adulterous women
to death. They also carried out public execution of murderers in Kabul and
provincial capitals.
Agencies add: Shah Jahan Noori, the provincial police chief, said that one
Mohammed Aslam killed his daughter Amina on Thursday for adultery in a remote
village of Badakhshan province called Gazan. Some officials denied reports that
she was stoned to death and said the reports were mistaken and that Aslam
carried out the killing alone.
Deputy Governor Haji Shamsul Rahman said the woman went to the house of a man
called Mohammed Karim last Wednesday evening.
He said Karim’s father had spied the couple, locked them in the house and
called people from the village to witness their supposed crime.
Mohammed Aslam was then summoned. "According to our report, when Amina’s father
took his daughter back home, the father killed his daughter out of shame,"
Rahman said.
A witness, Mujibur Rahman, said that Amina was dragged out of her parent’s
house by local officials and her husband who stoned her to death while the man
was whipped 100 times and then freed.
Another report quoted Lt-Gen Shah Jahan Noori, the provincial police chief
saying, "We got reports that on Friday a woman was stoned to death for adultery
based on the decision of local Mullah Mohammed Yusof in Urgu district."
Comment on this story,
click here.
Copyright 1999-2004, AsianSexGazette.com. All rights reserved. No
content may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission.
Please contact us via the link below for re-print and syndication policies.
|
|
Afghans:
"Bring back the Taliban!"
3-21-2005
Forced
marriage still rife in Afghanistan
3-15-2005
Islamic
court revokes rape case acquittals
3-14-2005
|
