Jihadists threaten to murder lawyer defending Afghan against blasphemy charge

"I told them they could do what they like. It didn't stop me taking the case."

"Islamists threaten to murder lawyer defending Pervez," by Jerome Starkey for The Independent, August 1:

The Afghan lawyer defending a journalist on death row in Kabul has been bombarded with death threats urging him to drop the case.

Islamic extremists repeatedly threatened to murder Afzal Nooristani after he agreed to defend Sayed Pervez Kambaksh in his high-profile appeal.

The 23-year-old student writer was sentenced to death for circulating an article about women's rights. He was tried in a closed court, and denied a defence lawyer. His case has sparked worldwide protests.

In Afghanistan, conservative clerics have led rallies endorsing his conviction, while others have marched for his release. Most lawyers were too afraid to take his case.

"I received phone calls threatening to kill me," said Mr Nooristani. "I answered two of them and got lots of missed calls. But I told them they could do what they like. It didn't stop me taking the case."

More than 100,000 people have signed an online Independent petition demanding justice for Mr Kambaksh. The United Nations' high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, have all called for justice to be done.

But speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Afghan Bar Association yesterday, Mr Nooristani warned that the appeal was already deeply flawed, and he said it is almost impossible for Mr Kambaksh to get a fair trial.

"There's no concrete evidence against him, but still the court insists on keeping him in jail and postponing the trial," he said.

Mr Kambaksh was moved to Kabul, from his local jail in Mazar-e Sharif, to improve his chances of a fair trial. But the case has been postponed indefinitely following a brief court appearance in May.

"Even in Kabul the judge played the role of the prosecution. Now the court has to set a date for the trial but we haven't received anything for months," Mr Nooristani added.

Guilty until proven dead. Then still guilty.

The Great Discremenation

Humans don’t take kindly to outsiders especially when they look differently. History is heaped with the corpses of those who were lynched, bayoneted or gassed because of their race, religion or nationality. Throughout the history the one group has imposed its racial superiority on another. Imperialism has imposed various forms of apartheid and racial segregation in all four continents. Today, most westerners and some Afghans think that the days of racism are gone. Racism belongs to history and they now have respect for all people, disregarding their skin colour. Since the international intervention in Afghanistan, Americans and the rest of the international community have presented their military and political presence to support democracy and human rights and frankly they got me believing in it for five years. I hear say that discrimination is today deeply institutionalised than any other time before. Westerners are in control of Afghanistan and they exercise discrimination on a mass scale. I am an educated person and I deal with foreigners who run organisations in Afghanistan. one would think there might be racism when western troops handle ordinary afghans on the street but not in formal level but it does exist. An afghan earn less and will not be employed in key positions in foreign organisation who are to serve Afghans. I am lately looking for a job and I have applied for many with foreign organisations; understandably enough I only apply for jobs I like but they seem to be only reserved for foreigners even I match the criteria. I do not get a response from most of the employers. I have applied lately for a job as a TV Producer with ISAF. I was denied the job without considering my qualification because I am Afghan, it is only reserved for westerners. People earn less because of their race or their sex, I think this is unfair and many people agree with this. No western institution, apparently, should be enforcing discrimination of earning based on race or sex but ISAF do and I wrote to NATO headquarter to say this is indecent and a bad policy but they didn’t care to reply.
Let’s look at sex discrimination first, according to a recent summary by the economists Michael Clemens (link to the publication http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/16352 ) white men earn 27 per cent more in the US than white women. That figure compares the hourly wage of full-time workers with similar qualifications and experience. Again making best efforts to compare like with like, the economists found that white men earn 7 per cent more than black men in the US. Look back to 1939, and the like-with-like wage premium for whites in the US was 60 per cent. In modern Pakistan, meanwhile, men earn three times as much as equally qualified women. I do not have any figures for Afghanistan but I promise you it will not look good. None of these numbers is trivial: most are appalling.
It is even possible to calculate the implicit wage loss suffered by US slaves. Several economists have attempted to do this by comparing the “compensation” – food, clothes, shelter and perhaps some medical care – received by slaves with how much one slave-owner would pay another to rent a slave. Of course, low wages were hardly the chief reason that slavery was an atrocity. Yet had slaves earned for their labour what slave-owners paid each other for it, the wage would have been three or four times higher than the basic subsistence owners saw fit to provide.
There is a huge gap between what slaves would have earned in a free labour market and what in fact they were forced to accept. But the gap is dwarfed by the difference between what my income as an Afghan with a Master degree and five years of managerial experience in Afghanistan and Westerners with a Bachelor degree with no Afghanistan experience could earn in Afghanistan. in the letter, ISAF recruitment refers me to apply for local jobs; local jobs are paid ten to twenty times less than the job I applied for. Recruitment discrimination practiced by ISAF and almost all other foreign organisation in Afghanistan cause a greater loss of wages than racial and sexual discrimination – and even greater even than slavery. This is what I call the great discrimination.
You could say my argument has an agenda and I am playing this but don’t doubt the numbers; have a look for yourself and see the differences between jobs offered for Afghans and those for westerners http://www.nato.int/isaf/services/vacancies/index.html, I see no reason to doubt the numbers. The high wage to an Afghan benefits Afghanistan directly and indirectly, directly an Afghan would contribute by paying high taxes and indirectly an Afghan will spend the money in Afghanistan.
The face of nationalism has changed in the twenty first century; it is economical today which doesn’t mean it is better than twenty century nationalism. Probably better than it is extreme forms exposed as Nazism. National states impose restriction on employment and labour markets to benefit their national economy; this is at the cost of many people barred from accessing better wages, consequently more opportunities in life. nevertheless what I am talking about is different to economic nationalism. I am talking about not having access to jobs in your own country. in my own country, merely because of my nationality I am precluded from employment in many positions.
This leads me to say that discrimination is today institutionalised. Is this the modern form of racism? Foreign organisations employing Afghans at considerably lower wages privileges westerners over Afghans in their own country and it is no better than arbitrarily privileging whites over blacks or brown. I understand how a liberal westerner working in Kabul could not see things like this. They are in a cyst of their own and they have certain ideas of equality and Afghans. Westerners working in Afghanistan despite their claim of humanity and all the rest of things which goes with liberal westerners seriously lack empathy, they do not understand how these discrimination effect an Afghan who is equally qualified but institutional barred from being economically equal with westerners in his own country and not allowed to travel to the west.

MORE ON SUICIDE...

In my last post I tried to explore the reasons for suicide. I emphasised there is a strong element of unhappiness and dissatisfaction behind suicide whether its by women who can’t bear their miserable lives anymore or it’s a child or a man who targets foreigners and the government. There is a deep element of unhappiness. below I am using a story which first appeared in RAWA website, this is shows what the reason for family suicide could be, its injustice and tyranny. As for RAWA I don’t agree with their stand. I don’t think their methods are going to bring about any change and they have got a lot of issues substantially wrong. Having that said, I appreciate their role in the wider social hierarchy, the general public, politicians, journalists and many more tend to conform to tradition and dominant power while RAWA protests and I think that is a good thing, the fact that they protest against norms and injustice is a good thing. it might be that RAWA is a habitual protester and they will always find something to protest against but currently there is plenty to protest against.

Warlords gang-rape 12-year-old girl, her family threatens to commit mass suicide if justice is not done. Uncle of the victim accuses the police chief to have links with the gunmen responsible for such crimes.

A 12-year old schoolgirl was gang-raped by five gunmen in Sarpul province in Northern Afghanistan.

The girl and her family asked Hamid Karzai to prosecute the rapists and take their case seriously. They threatened that if they are not provided justice, the whole family will commit mass suicide to get rid of such life. They say, the local authorities keep silence on such cases and did not act to arrest those responsible.

While crying, the rape victim told journalists that she was raped in a village called Baghabi in Sarpul province. She says five gunmen poured into their house in mid-night and after beating and abusing the family members, gang-raped her.

Ali Khan, uncle of the girl told Ariana TV that he has reported the case to the police and visited the police chief a number of times to ask for justice, but they do not pay attention to the issue and even abused and threatened him to be silent otherwise he will be jailed. He accuses the police chief to have links with the gunmen responsible for such crimes. But General Abdul Khaliq Samimi, police chief says they have arrested three people connected to the issue.

On February 18, 2008 a fourteen-year old girl named Bashira was gang-raped by three men in the same province. One of the rapists is Najibullah, the son of Haji Payinda, a member of parliament from Sar-e-Pul.

Sayed Noorullah, father of Bashira told Tolo TV on July 19, 2008 that the case against the rapist has not been followed property by the court, because the rapist is son of a member of parliament and they bribed the Forensic Medical Investigation department to show the 22-year-old rapist as being less than 18 to escape the charges based on law.

Sayed Noorullah threatened that if the rapists are not punished, he will become “a dangerous suicide bomber” and take revenge himself.

Gang-rape and sexual abuse of young girls in the Northern provinces of Afghanistan by local warlords is very common but only few cases are reported by media, because it is usually risky for the journalists who report such issues.

Sayed Norullah father of 14-year-old Bashira: “I will become a dangerous suicide bomber to take revenge if the court fails to provide me justice.”

Why Suicide and suicide attack is happening in Afghanistan

Modern way of living and utilities has penetrated deep into Afghan society, even the most conservatives in the remotest village has some access to media, modern transportation, agriculture utilities, health care and medicine and many more appliances. While their values and social structures remain tribal or traditional. The penetration of modernity has been embraced by Islam, Islamists never said ‘NO’ to modernity to achieve their ends, most fanatics such as mullah Omar and Sayyaf, Rabani or Mujadadi uses modern tool to extend their influence on the community. The modern way of life has provided opportunity for some to secure a better life and for others to be worsen as the so called leaders have influenced them by using modern utilities. The tightly knit of society has been broken as everyone struggle for their survival. The means of survival have also changed; people are relying less and less on agriculture and husbandry. Its no more possible because of the drought and natural disasters. Those who have better life are either in business of poppy or have sons in a foreign country or a professional occupation. Te lives of many Afghans have got better today in material term, the poverty of our grandparents are now unimaginable for many Afghans. The society has become more injustice too. The society does not offer the chance to escape from traditionalism, nor the prospect how to make such an escape. Individuals have to accept greater risk and uncertainty in their lives.

Its absolutely wrong to attempt to explain self-emulation by five hundred women last year and over a hundred men most of men in suicide bomb attacks as behaviour and characteristic of individuals. Its not the action of innately disturbed people. These suicides have social causes.

Afghanistan in its traditional form could be seen as working in terms of mechanical solidarity. Afghan society in traditional and tribal form is integrated, or held together, by the fact that Afghans had similar beliefs and values and they have similar roles. In traditional Afghan society all people do similar things, similar job and they live similar lives, doing little farming or something. In traditional afghan society identities are clearly defined in terms of roles and family background.

Afghan society is not traditional in the sense mentioned above. Afghanistan for most has changed, the home which was work space is no more. people to have better life work in a different place than home, work is not controlled by family. People like sayyaf or mullah omar control the village or people work in the cities.

There is no solidarity in Afghan society. People have to struggle to live via other means, while it’s Russians, or mujahdeen or Americans or Taliban or someone else trying to control their lives. The norms in society are old and rotten it does not provide a good framework for individual to act. As a result most individuals are corrupt and their moral structure does not lead them. the society has not lost the morality or it has not been loosen. The only answer afghans think will work is to strengthen norms this is supported by the so called leaders because this serves their purposes. Afghanistan has become corrupt and hypocritical. Life for many has become hard especially for women.

There is a conflict in Afghan society, we as Afghans failed to respond constructively and fix this failure that is why first Russians and now the rest of the world came to fix it. not because they care about Afghanistan but because Afghanistan have caused some serious problems to the rest of the world. The demands of the self proclaimed leaders have conflict with each other and as a result they are in constant conflict and because they have no political intelligence the only way they settle conflict is through bloodshed, and that has turned them into criminals. Individuals have abandoned the social norms but they maintain to conform with it. Afghans support the goal of what is said by the criminal leaders. They do not follow any other route. While they think the goal is not good enough for them but they like the means for achieving it. Afghans are deeply unhappy about their lives, some blame others, others seek god and they commit suicide and kill others for their imagined gods. Some afghans conform, they don’t want to protest, they think the protest route end up not in the desired location. Some are deeply unhappy that includes the 500 women who committed suicide last year.