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Women's rights - it's not a won battle. It's really not.
So I'm reading this article in Norwegian about Norway and Finland building a women's prison in Afghanistan and our defence minister visiting it, crying.
You know why she cried?
These are four of the women serving there and their "crimes". You read what happened to them and see if you don't want to cry, too.
Najilia is 20. She was accused of helping her cousin see a man on the side. Originally, she got six months in the local courts. Then it was appealed and when the case reached the high court in Kabul, she got more. A lot more. Her sentence is now 12 years. Her three children live with her in prison.
Maria is 18. She was wed at 11. Her brother-in-law raped her while her husband was away and she got sentenced for infidelity. The brother-in-law got nothing and wasn't even charged. The son that was the result of the rape lives with her in prison, as her family as disowned her and the kid.
Dowlatnama is 55. She got sentenced for kidnapping initially, because the court felt she had encouraged a boy next door to meet a girl in secret. But when the family of the girl murdered the girl for dishonouring the family, Dowlatnama got a sentence for "indirect" murder. The father who killed got nothing.
Hanifa was married to a man who disappered and was assumed dead. So Hanifa remarried. When her first husband turned out to be alive, she got sentenced for infidelity and thrown in prison.
Yeah. I don't even know what to say to that. But note, all these cases are *after* Taliban's regime fell.
Before Norway and Finland built a prison and educated prison staff, these women were serving in a damp, dark cellar. With their children there.
The same city has a men's prison as well; 300 men are serving in a prison built in 1905 meant for 60 inmates.
One Norwegian observed that animals in Norway were treated better than that, to which the defence minister pointed out you'd go to prison in Norway for treating animals like that. But Norway is helping to finance a new prison for the men too, and trying to help reform Afghanistan's legal system.
I'm glad my country is doing something, but I hope we can do more. We need to do more, all of us.
In the world today, we still have so very far to go with human rights and women's rights. So very, very far. Najilia, Maria, Dowlatnama and Hanifa are all testimony to that.
Remember them.
(You can read more about women in Afghanistan here and here. There are also campaigns to help, like this one.)
So I'm reading this article in Norwegian about Norway and Finland building a women's prison in Afghanistan and our defence minister visiting it, crying.
You know why she cried?
These are four of the women serving there and their "crimes". You read what happened to them and see if you don't want to cry, too.
Najilia is 20. She was accused of helping her cousin see a man on the side. Originally, she got six months in the local courts. Then it was appealed and when the case reached the high court in Kabul, she got more. A lot more. Her sentence is now 12 years. Her three children live with her in prison.
Maria is 18. She was wed at 11. Her brother-in-law raped her while her husband was away and she got sentenced for infidelity. The brother-in-law got nothing and wasn't even charged. The son that was the result of the rape lives with her in prison, as her family as disowned her and the kid.
Dowlatnama is 55. She got sentenced for kidnapping initially, because the court felt she had encouraged a boy next door to meet a girl in secret. But when the family of the girl murdered the girl for dishonouring the family, Dowlatnama got a sentence for "indirect" murder. The father who killed got nothing.
Hanifa was married to a man who disappered and was assumed dead. So Hanifa remarried. When her first husband turned out to be alive, she got sentenced for infidelity and thrown in prison.
Yeah. I don't even know what to say to that. But note, all these cases are *after* Taliban's regime fell.
Before Norway and Finland built a prison and educated prison staff, these women were serving in a damp, dark cellar. With their children there.
The same city has a men's prison as well; 300 men are serving in a prison built in 1905 meant for 60 inmates.
One Norwegian observed that animals in Norway were treated better than that, to which the defence minister pointed out you'd go to prison in Norway for treating animals like that. But Norway is helping to finance a new prison for the men too, and trying to help reform Afghanistan's legal system.
I'm glad my country is doing something, but I hope we can do more. We need to do more, all of us.
In the world today, we still have so very far to go with human rights and women's rights. So very, very far. Najilia, Maria, Dowlatnama and Hanifa are all testimony to that.
Remember them.
(You can read more about women in Afghanistan here and here. There are also campaigns to help, like this one.)
