An Afghan
nightmare: Forced to marry your rapist
It is an
unimaginably hideous outcome. To be
raped by your cousin's husband; be jailed for adultery as your attacker was
married; to suffer the ignominy of global uproar about your jailing and
assault, but be pardoned by presidential decree; and then to endure the shame
and rejection from a conservative society that somehow held you to blame. The
solution in this society? Marry your attacker. Women's rights in Afghanistan: Are
we witnessing a revolution? That's what happened to Gulnaz, who was barely 16
when she was raped. She's now carrying the third child of her attacker,
Asadullah, who was convicted and jailed -- though this was then reduced. Afghan
rape victim freed. Gulnaz's plight -- like so much in beleaguered Afghanistan
-- disappeared from the world's gaze once she was pardoned and released
courtesy of a presidential pardon. Instead of a new start, what followed for
Gulnaz was a quiet, Afghan solution to the "problem" -- a telling
sign of where women's rights stand in Afghanistan despite the billions that
have poured into this country from the U.S. government and its NATO allies
during more than a decade of war.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005971.html
This is horrible, but then again, it is another country, another culture. I'm not saying that it is an excuse, but this sort of thing is not extraordinary to them. However, this is still a horrible thing to do, and we should raise more awareness for events like this.
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