The never-ending cases of rape in Afghanistan
In the last two years, there have been more than a dozen high-profile cases of rape in Afghanistan — and the following list is just the tip of the iceberg:
- 14.11.2014: A 3-year-old and 12-year-old gang-raped by armed men in Afghan province
- 04.11.2014: Family of woman gang-raped by 8 men in Badakhshan seeks justice
- 08.10.2014: Culture of impunity behind rape
- 09.09.2014: Afghanistan: Gang Rape Trial Badly Flawed
- 03.09.2014: Armed men raped three women including one who was pregnant on Kabul road
- 22.07.2014: Afghan Girl Unsafe After a Mullah Is Accused of Rape
- 20.07.2014: Five-year-old Boy Dies After Brutal Gang Rape in Afghanistan
- 23.12.2013: 15-year-old boy gang-raped
- 13.12.2013: Another teenage girl gang raped
- 27.08.2013: Rape victims’ families keep rape incident secret due to pressure
- 06.08.2013: Boy raped before being hanged
- 10.06.2013: AIHRC: 400 rape, honor killings registered in Afghanistan in 2 years
- 13.04.2013: Two girls gang-raped in Afghanistan
Sex in general, for an Afghan, is taboo and not something to be openly discussed. It means rape and sexual assault are even more difficult to talk about, despite case after case of rape reported in the media. That may soon change, though, after the most recent and most heinous of these rape cases sent shockwaves through Afghanistan — the rape of a 3-year-old child strangled and left for dead.
Zina, or sex outside marriage, is a crime under Afghan law and punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The most shocking part is that many women and girls have been convicted of zina after being raped or forced into prostitution, and subsequently imprisoned for ‘moral crimes’. In fact, Human Rights Watch reported that the number of women and girls imprisoned for such ‘moral crimes’ rose by 50% between 2011 and 2013.
On a broader level, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) revealed that violence against women across the nation reached record highs in 2013 — its chair, Sima Samar, telling Reuters that:
“The brutality of the cases is really bad. Cutting the nose, lips and ears. Committing public rape… mass rape… it’s against dignity, against humanity”
The struggle for women’s rights continues in Afghanistan, although some progress has been made in recent years. Indeed, the Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) was passed in 2009, and built upon Afghanistan’s 2003 ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Woman (CEDAW).
Both CEDAW and EVAW require that the state respect, protect, and fulfill women’s rights, especially towards violence and gender equality. EVAW also increased the penalty for rape to 20 years imprisonment, with perpetrators sentenced to death if the victim dies. However, the UN has also criticised EVAW for its poor implementation and failure to reduce the number of prostitutes and rape victims who have been convicted of zina or adultery.
Violence against women is not limited to Afghanistan. Rape remains at epidemic proportions across the world.
It is alarming that in cases of rape and ‘moral crimes’, females are routinely subjected to virginity tests — which are then used by courts to determine whether those women had recently engaged in sexual intercourse. Many females have been subjected multiple vaginal examinations without informed consent, and although medical examinations can be a legitimate tool for investigating alleged sexual assault, gynecological exams that seek to determine virginity have no medical accuracy.
Such exams also constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law. As Brad Adams — executive director of Human Rights Watch Asia — notes:
“coerced virginity examinations are a form of sexual assault… Afghan police, without any scientific basis, are routinely forcing these unspeakable examinations on women and young girls”
To subject anybody to a virginity test post-rape is akin to punishing the victim — and it could get worse as women’s shelters across the country lose international funding following the departure of combat forces from Afghanistan. As it is, women have no access to shelters in the southern half of the country, and the Afghan government itself has been largely unhelpful towards shelters, with Justice Minister Habibullah Ghaleb claiming in 2012 that women in shelters fleeing violence were “prostitutes”.
It is no understatement to suggest Afghanistan has a long way to go before becoming the civilized society in which the rights of women and children are respected and upheld.
