A 23-year-old journalism student has been sentenced to death for reading about woman's rights today, January 31st. The Islamic court in Afghanistan, charged the student with blasphemy after downloading a report from a Farsi website that stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed. This man's efforts to provoke debate on the matter at his university by passing out the report to students and teachers ended in his arrest, a trial by religious judges (this is not Taliban times, mind you) without legal representation and his death sentence! Craaaazy! The Independent newspaper is launching a campaign today to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh. You can sign their petition here: http://www.independent.co.uk/petition (i just signed it). The UN, human rights groups, journalists' organizations and Western diplomats have urged Mr Karzai's government to intervene and free him. But the Afghan Senate passed a motion yesterday confirming the death sentence. This makes me so sad.
--gabs
No comments:
Post a Comment