Over the past ten years, the AIHRC has received more than 19,000 complaints related to violence against women. Despite making some progress in investigating the complaints and referring them to the justice system, as well as in raising public awareness about the issue, the challenges remain huge.
Since 2002, many efforts have been made to improve women’s lives in Afghanistan. The country has enacted several new laws and established a fairly advanced legal framework to end discrimination against women, including a new law that criminalizes any act that results in violence against women.
But laws and policies alone are not sufficient to protect women from horrific domestic abuse. Indeed, the Gul case is hardly the only well-publicized case. There was also Gulnaz, a young woman who was jailed for adultery after being raped by a relative (she was recently released after a presidential pardon, but may be forced to marry her attacker). The husband of another young woman, Aisha, cut off her nose and ears when she ran away.
Violence against women in Afghanistan persists for many reasons. First, the country has inherited a patriarchal tribal tradition that assumes women’s inferiority. Women are therefore deprived of their basic rights and freedoms.
Second, there is a strong political incentive to deprive women of their rights. Radical groups receive immense support from the large share of the population that opposes women’s rights. The Taliban, for example, have consistently used an anti-women policy to appeal to tribal and rural people.
Third, family pride and honor are deemed more important than a woman’s individual well-being and safety. For example, if family members beat or abuse a woman, she has few options. Often, her only choice is to remain silent or risk disgracing the family. If she does report the matter to the authorities, the case will almost certainly never be properly investigated, nor the perpetrators ever prosecuted. Gul, for example, complained to the police about her abusive in-laws, but she was returned to the family when some of their influential contacts intervened.
Fourth, laws are often arbitrarily applied, and sharia (Islamic law) frequently takes precedence over civil legislation, resulting in widespread impunity for crimes of violence against women. For example, in October 2010, the Afghan Supreme Court ruled that women who run away from home can be charged with prostitution, unless they go to the police or an immediate relative's home. It is this mindset that led to Gul’s victimization.
Finally, while the Taliban lost power ten years ago, discrimination and violence against women has occurred in Afghan society for centuries. Thus, despite some progress, public and official sensitivity to violence against women is only slowly emerging.
The Afghan government must take several steps to protect women fully. Above all, perpetrators of violence against women should be prosecuted and tried under due process of law. This will require strengthening the rule of law and ending the prevailing culture of impunity.
That, in turn, requires educating the public further about human rights and women’s rights through school textbooks, continuing education courses, and a vigorous media campaign. It also requires persuading representatives and policymakers to develop policies and allocate budget revenues to combat violence against women, and training police and judges to handle cases of violence against women without deferring to claims of family honor. Perhaps most importantly, non-constitutional justice systems, such as sharia, must be monitored and checked, if not prohibited altogether.
As for Sahar Gul, her case must be thoroughly investigated, and the police and judiciary must commit to bringing her torturers to justice. Furthermore, Gul’s case, and others like it, should be studied in order to understand the roots of such crimes. Until Afghanistan’s leaders begin to address this problem seriously, our country will continue to bear the scar of violence against women on its face.
Mohammad Musa Mahmodi is Executive Director of the Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission.
Mohammed Musa
Mahmodi: 暴力威脅下的阿富汗婦女
喀布爾——最近阿富汗獨立人權委員會（AIHRC）在庫都茲省（Kudoz）的辦事處報告了一起營救事件。年僅15歲的莎哈爾·古爾（Sahar Gul）先是被迫嫁給一名年紀比她大的阿富汗軍人，隨后又被夫家人強迫賣淫，她不從，於是就被鎖在地牢裡殘酷虐待了整整七年，直至被營救出來。
在過去十年間，委員會收到了超過1.9萬件與虐待婦女有關的申訴。盡管在調查這些申訴並移交司法機關的提升了公眾對該事務關注度方面取得了一些進展，但我們所面對的挑戰依然非常艱巨。
自2002年以來，各界在改善阿富汗婦女待遇方面作出了許多努力。國家也頒布了一系列新法並建立了一個相當先進的法律框架來結束對婦女的歧視，其中包括一部能將任何針對婦女的暴力行為定罪的法律。
但僅靠法律和政策並不足以保護婦女免遭殘酷的家族虐待行為。事實上，上面那宗案件隻不過是曝光率最高的一個。還有一名叫古爾納茲（Gulnaz）的年輕婦女在遭到親戚強奸之后竟以通奸罪名入獄（雖然她最近得到總統特赦，但仍可能被迫要和強奸者結婚）。而另一位叫阿莎的婦女試圖從家裡逃走，卻被其夫捉回來殘忍地割掉了鼻子和雙耳。
而針對婦女的暴力行為之所以在阿富汗屢禁不止，是由許多原因的：首先，該國繼承了一個男權部落傳統，認為女性就是低人一等，並因此剝奪了女性的基本權利和自由。
其次，在政治上也存在強大的誘因去剝奪女性的權利。有極大數量的民眾反對給於婦女權利，而這些人同時又為那些極端組織提供了強大的支持。例如塔利班組織就一直利用一套壓制婦女的政策來吸引部落和農村地區的民眾。
第三，有些人把家族榮譽看得比婦女個人的幸福和安全更加重要。如果其他家庭成員虐打了家族中的一名婦女，她有幾個選項。一般情況下，她隻能在忍氣吞聲和令家族蒙羞之間選擇。如果該名婦女把情況報告給了當局，這個案件幾乎不會被認真調查，施暴者也不會被起訴。比方說在古爾一案中，古爾將自己所遭受的暴行報告給了警察，誰知在夫家認識的某些權勢人物介入后，警察竟又把她送回了夫家。
其四，法律往往無法得到徹底執行，伊斯蘭教法又經常凌駕於民法之上，使得那些針對婦女的暴力或罪行得以逍遙法外。例如2010年10月阿富汗最高法院裁定：除非前往警察局或者直系親屬的家，否則逃離家庭的婦女將以賣淫罪論處。
最后，當塔利班政權在十年前倒台之時，對婦女的歧視和暴力已經在阿富汗存在了幾個世紀之久。盡管目前取得了一些進步，公眾和官方對這些事件的敏感度也隻是緩慢建立之中。
因此阿富汗政府必須採取一系列步驟去徹底保護婦女權益。其中最重要的莫過於要將這些針對婦女的暴力行為予以起訴並在恰當的法律程序下進行審判。這就要求強化法治並消滅當前這種有罪不糾的文化。
這反過來要求通過教科書，繼續教育課程和大型媒體宣傳活動來進一步向公眾傳達關於人權和婦女權利的知識。同時也需要說服民意代表和政策制定者們去制定相關政策並撥出預算來打擊暴力虐待婦女的行為，訓練警察和法官摒除所謂家族榮譽的影響，秉公處理相關案件。而或許更重要的是，要麼將類似伊斯蘭教法這樣的非憲政司法系統全面禁止，要麼對其進行檢討和修訂。
對於莎哈爾·古爾來說，她的案件必須得到徹查，警察和法官必須盡全力將那些虐待她的人繩之於法。此外也必須對這些案件進行研究以辨清這類犯罪的根源。除非阿富汗領導人們開始認真處理這個問題，否則我們這個國家將繼續因虐待婦女的罪行而蒙羞。
Mohammed
Musa Mahmodi是阿富汗獨立人權委員會的執行總裁。