From Jihad Watch:
Only suspect arrested in Taliban-ordered mutilation of Afghan woman is set free
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan sends the message loud and clear that women's rights don't matter. It has been a common practice in Afghanistan before to imprison and punish women who fled violent husbands, as Bibi Aisha did, with authorities regarding their escapes as "tantamount to adultery." "Suspect in Mutilation of an Afghan Woman Is Freed," by Alissa J. Rubin for the New York Times, July 11:
KABUL, Afghanistan — The only suspect arrested in the case of a woman mutilated for leaving her husband has been released, local Afghan officials and the woman’s father said Monday, in a move that has angered human rights advocates and the woman’s family.
The suspect, Sulaiman, who like many Afghans has one name, was released with the knowledge of the governor in south-central Oruzgan Province, said the provincial attorney, Ghulam Farouq. Police officials had said that Mr. Sulaiman, the woman’s father-in-law, had confessed to taking part in the mutilation in 2009, though Mr. Farouq said he had recently insisted he was innocent.
On Monday, Mr. Farouq gave two different reasons for the release of Mr. Suleiman: that there was no one in Afghanistan to press the case against him — because the victim is now in the United States — and that he did not cut off the girl’s nose himself.
“If someone commits a crime, then nobody else should be punished or arrested,” Mr. Farouq said. “The crime was committed by his son, Quadratullah, and this innocent guy was imprisoned for 11 months.”.
Never mind that he helped hold her down, as described a few paragraphs below:
The governor of Oruzgan Province could not be reached for comment on Monday. [...].
The woman, Bibi Aisha, came to national attention when Time magazine used a photo of her on its cover in August 2010, with the suggestion that this was what would happen to women if the West left Afghanistan. A child bride, Aisha (Bibi is an honorific; Aisha asked that her family name be withheld) had fled her arranged marriage to a Taliban fighter, but was captured and returned to the village where her husband, father-in-law and two brothers-in-law cut her nose and ears off after getting approval from the local Taliban mullah, said Aisha’s father, Mohammedzai, who was interviewed by telephone on Monday.
He added that Mr. Sulaiman was one of the people who held down his daughter while her husband cut her. The mutilation took place in Chora, a remote area of Oruzgan Province. Left for dead, Aisha fled to the safety of a women’s shelter in Kabul run by the advocacy group Women for Afghan Women, which publicized her plight a year later.
“The man they let out, he was Aisha’s father-in-law,” said Mr. Mohammedzai, his voice cracking as he spoke. “He was there at the time when they chopped off her nose and did the cruelty to her. He was one of the culprits and should have been punished, but the government released him.”.
“We don’t know who released him,” he said. “We don’t know at all. It’s either government weakness or our weakness. We don’t have money to pay the government and we don’t have someone in the government to support us.”.
The other perpetrators have not been apprehended because the area is controlled by the Taliban and the police cannot enter it, the police have said. Aisha’s husband, Quadratullah, who is a Taliban commander, fled to Pakistan or goes back and forth, according to women’s rights advocates who have tracked the case....
Posted by Marisol on July 12, 2011 12:24 AM
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