In Afghanistan, rape
victims are victimized twice

Khadija Ibrahimi

July 10, 2009

On July 8th, a United Nations report was published which concluded that rape is a widespread problem in Afghanistan. Major UN officials such as Kai Eide expressed serious concerns that Afghans were not doing enough to stop the increasing violence against women. Unfortunately in Afghanistan, a combination of corruption, inadequate laws, and tribal gatherings held in lieu of the modern day trial process, not only fails to provide justice for women when it comes to rape and violence, but it usually ends up victimizing them twice.

Because of corruption, rapists are hardly prosecuted and most of the time, they easily find a way to avoid any type of real punishment. Many men get away with rape because they are connected to government officials and buy their way out of prosecution, or are members of armed gangs or militias, and the rape victim is too scared of coming forward for fear of further violence against her or her family. Others are afraid of pursuing justice due to social stigmas and fear of being labeled a "whore" or an "adulterer", and bringing "shame" or "dishonor" to their family and tribe. Sometimes families will even punish or practice "honor killing" as they see rape as the woman's fault. Many Afghans, even the educated ones in the urban areas are unfortunately obsessed with shame and how their families are viewed by other families. The truth comes second to having a favorable image, even if it is a false image.

Corruption is only one part of this injustice. Afghanistan doesn't even have anything official on paper to adequately address the crime of rape. Sima Samar, the head of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission told the Reuters on the same day the UN report was published that Afghanistan lacks a proper law against rape, and that existing laws treat adultery and rape as the same crime. She believes the Afghan government must clearly identify the crime and implement a new rape law.

Since there are a lack of adequate laws and difficulty when it comes to pursuing justice via the government, many times, rape crimes are settled via the traditional Afghan tribal gatherings called "jirgas" or "shuras". Rightfully so, the UN report did not recommend this method of pursuing justice as these gatherings, consist of only men, and are biased against the women involved. The rulings usually involve some sort of face saving in which the rapist is ordered to marry the woman he raped if he is found guilty, or if he is not found guilty, the woman usually ends up being punished for committing adultery.

As bizarre as that may sound to anyone not wrapped up in tribal culture, this actually happens. The woman gets to suffer twice. First she gets raped, and then she is forced to marry and most likely bear children for the rapist. Also, since there is no way to process DNA evidence, or other high tech ways of proving a crime in Afghanistan, most of the times, the victim is unable to prove the rape. Even if she ends up pregnant with the man's child, that's still not enough, however, it is enough to find her guilty of adultery. The usual punishment for an unmarried woman who commits adultery is 100 lashes.

For any Afghan that believes the rulings of these gatherings are a legitimate way of dealing with rape clearly do not understand Islam, and they clearly do not understand the meaning of honor and justice. These people lack normal human logic, and it wouldn't be too far off to label them as demented and cruel individuals.

The sad situation for these Afghan women today reminds me of an Afghan story involving Mullah Nasruddin that was initially told to me when I was a young girl. Mullah Nasruddin stories and jokes are very common in Afghanistan and usually there is hidden wisdom in almost every story. This particular story goes something like this:

One day, Mullah Nasruddin's daughter knocks on his door. Mullah Nasruddin opens the door to find his daughter at the door with bruises on her face and crying. He asks her "what's wrong?" She replies that her husband beat her. He takes her back to her husband's house, and the woman at this point is feeling that perhaps her father will do something about her beating husband. Unfortunately, in front of her husband, he gives her a hard and fast slap across the face. The confused woman asks her father, why he slapped her. He replies: "Your husband is a jerk! Since he beat my daughter, in revenge, I slapped his wife!”

This is ironic, but a real illustration of being victimized twice. The story teller's intentions were to make me laugh, but instead, I started to cry. The poor woman, I thought to myself, she was beaten by her husband and then slapped by her own father. She was victimized twice, just like the rape victims in Afghanistan. It does reveal the mentality of many tribal Afghan men, and how illogical they can be. As Sima Samar told Reuters, a proper and modern rape law must be implemented in Afghanistan and corruption eliminated, otherwise Afghan women will continue to be at the mercy of these ridiculous tribal  gatherings where face saving, tribal loyalties, and the desires of the men involved are given a much higher priority over implementing justice.

Khadija Ibrahimi is a graduate student studying political science.  She can be reached at khadija_ibrahimi@yahoo.com

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