RAWA, February 25, 2008


Bashira, gang-raped in Sar-e-Pul province, calls for justice

While talking to media, Bashira said that her family wanted her to keep quiet and not open her mouth about the situation but she wanted justice.

The statistics in the report from Womankind, Afghan Women and Girls Seven Years On, make shocking reading. Violent attacks against females, usually domestic, are at epidemic proportions with 87 per cent of females complaining of such abuse – half of it sexual. More than 60 per cent of marriages are forced.
The Independent, Feb.25, 2008

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

She studies in class six of school and was going to get aid from aid distribution center, where she was beaten and raped by three men. She lives in Chalangum village in Sar-e-Pul province.

Bashira called for the persecution of those who had raped her. But no action has been taken yet as the MP, whose son is engaged in the crime is trying to rescue his son.

Ayesha, a rape victim
Ayesha, a four-year old girl who was raped in Balkh province.

While talking to media, Bashira said that her family wanted her to keep quiet and not open her mouth about the situation but she wanted justice. The tearful Bashira was talking to a group of journalists and added that she had reported the case to the Attorney but no one had even paid attention to her case. In Afghanistan only few such cases end up to be reported in the media, because either families keep silence or they are in remote areas with no access to media.

The family of Bashira has threatened that if justice is not done, they will kill their daughter.




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