The Lovers (50 page)

25
.   A typical press conference in Kabul, such as a presentation by the minister for counter-narcotics or the governor of Khost Province, would feature more than twenty television crews, with at most one or two of those from foreign outlets.

26
.

7: HONOR HUNTERS

1
.   There is a further discussion of this topic in The Jihad Against Women, particularly on pp. 271–73.

2
.   Huma Ahmed-Ghosh,
Journal of International Women’s Studies,
vol. 4, issue 3, p. 2, “A History of Women in Afghanistan: Lessons Learnt for the Future.” The author blamed Afghanistan’s lack of gender equality on “the patriarchal nature of gender and social relations deeply embedded in traditional communities” and “the existence of a weak central state, that has been unable to implement modernizing programs and goals in the face of tribal feudalism.”

3
.   Ibid., p. 14.

4
.   Ibid., p. 7. “Thus the two so-called progressive eras of the 1920s and 1970s, while attempting to improve women’s status were not only unsuccessful but also led to violent, fundamentalist backlashes by subsequent governments. In both periods, tribal leaders who objected to the redefining of women by the state and the diminution of their general authority initiated the disruption of the modernization process.”

5
.   See The Jihad Against Women, from p. 253, for a fuller discussion of this issue.

6
.   On several occasions during Afghanistan’s civil war, mujahideen had also tried to destroy the Bamiyan Buddhas, blasting away at them with artillery and defiling ancient Buddhist shrines nearby.

7
.   Matthew A. Goldstein,
Politics and the Life Sciences,
vol. 21, issue 2 (2002): pp. 28–37, “The Biological Roots of Heat-of-passion Crimes and Honour Killings.”

8
.   Thomas Barfield,
Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History
(Prince ton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010).

9
.   See also the 1977 British documentary
Death of a Princess,
about a Saudi princess executed for sex out of wedlock, on orders of her grandfather, discussed in a Harvard White Paper, available at http://pirp.harvard.edu/pubs_pdf/white/white-p83-9.pdf.

In a 2009 case, asylum was granted another Saudi princess in Britain on grounds that she would be subjected to death by stoning for having committed adultery. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8158 576.stm.

10
.   Department of Justice, Canada, Monograph, Jan. 7, 2015, “Preliminary Examination of So-called ‘Honour Killings’ in Canada.”

11
.   Only 38 percent of the population over the age of fifteen can read and write.
CIA World Factbook,
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html.

12
.   United Nations Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan, Commission of Human Rights, 2006 report, http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UND OC/GEN/G06/108/09/PDF/G0610809.pdf?OpenElement. “The current trends in violence against women in Afghanistan cannot be solely reduced to culture and tradition without consideration of the conflict and post-conflict situation” and “Moreover, the limits the traditional normative framework placed on the exercise of male power over women, reigning in mere arbitrariness, have to a large extent been washed away by 23 years of boundless war, which has disintegrated the social fabric of the society. When the rule of power, be it in the hands of State or non-State actors, replaces the rule of law, the highest price is paid by those with the least power, particularly women and children. In this context, many actors deform Islam and culture from a source of justice and fairness into a justification for their tyrannical acts against women.”

13
.   This is true in Pakistan as well, particularly in the North-West Frontier Provinces, which are populated predominantly by Pashtun tribals who closely identify with the Pashtun plurality in Afghanistan. There are also high rates of honor killings in other sectors of Pakistani society, arguably as bad as or worse than in Afghanistan.

14
.   It was Gulnaz’s word against the man’s, and he maintained it was consensual sex, not rape, even though she was fifteen at the time and had been bound hand and foot during the episode. The judge believed the man.

15
.   Alissa J. Rubin,
New York Times,
Dec. 2, 2011, p. A1, “For Afghan Woman, Justice Runs into Unforgiving Wall of Custom,” www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/world/asia/for-afghan-woman-justice-runs-into-the-static-wall-of-custom.html.

16
.   European Union External Action, “Factsheet,” Mar. 8, 2015, “EU Support to Promoting Women Leaders,” www.eeas.europa.eu/factsheets/docs/150308_01_factsheet_promoting_women_leaders_en.pdf.

17
.   Video highlights of the 2014 World Values Network Gala are at https://youtu.be/YnxEEeuC2RM.

18
.   Human Rights Watch,
World Report 2015,
Rwanda, www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/rwanda.

8: THE IRRECONCILABLES

1
.

2
.   Amina’s case is discussed in more detail in chapter 3.

3
.   Siddiqa’s case is discussed in more detail in chapter 3.

4
.   Khadija’s case is discussed in more detail in chapter 2.

9: BIRDS IN A CAGE

1
.   The word
hejab
is used in Afghanistan to refer to the full-length black robes that cover everything but a woman’s face or sometimes everything but the eyes; in other places this would be called an
abaya
or a chador, while the term
hejab
or hijab normally refers to an Islamic head scarf for women.

2
.

3
.   “His Juliet thinks she is pregnant with her Romeo’s child. So much for the good news.” See
New York Times,
June 8, 2014, p. A14, www.ny times.com/2014/06/08/world/asia/for-afghan-lovers-joy-is-brief-ending-in-arrest.html.

4
.   An Afghan National Police district is similar to a precinct in a big American city; Kabul has sixteen of them.

5
.   Embassy of Afghanistan, Washington, D.C., press release, “Afghanistan Ministry Designates First Female Police Chief in the Country,” www.embassyofafghanistan.org/article/afghan-ministry-of-interior-designates-first-female-police-chief-in-the-country. See also International Security Assistance Force, press release, July 7, 2014, “Afghan Police Academy graduates 51 female officers,” www.isaf.nato.int/article/isaf-news/isaf-generals-attend-female-anp-academy-graduation.html.

6
.   Alissa J. Rubin,
New York Times,
Mar. 2, 2015, “Afghan Policewomen Struggle Against Culture,” www.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/world/asia/afghan-policewomen-struggle-against-culture.html.

7
.   The website Good Afghan News, Mar. 10, 2010, shows Shafiqa Quraishi receiving the International Women of Courage Award from Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. See www.goodafghannews.com/2010/03/10/shukria-asil-and-shafiqa-quraishi-of-afghanistan-at-the-the-2010-international-women-of-courage-awards-event.

8
.   See p. 281 for more on Jamila Bayaz’s case. She was dismissed from her post as police chief in 2015.

10: RELUCTANT CELEBRITIES

1
.   Most other organizations running women’s shelters in Afghanistan, including the UN Women organization, shun publicity no matter how horrendous and hopeless the cases they handle.

2
.   Ms. Ghazanfar’s main point was that violence against women in Afghanistan was a minor problem, no different from violence against women in developed countries, and that the EVAW law was doing a terrific job of improving the situation even though there had been little need for improvement, and so on in that vein.

3
.   
New York Times,
May 19, 2014, p. A10, “Afghan Lovers’ Plight Shaking Up Lives of Those Left in Their Wake,” www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/world/asia/afghan-lovers-plight-shaking-up-the-lives-of-those-left-in-their-wake.html.

4
.   President Karzai did give an interview to freelancer Elizabeth Rubin for the
New York Times Magazine
in 2009
(
Aug. 9, “Karzai in His Labyrinth”), but not to the newspaper itself. See www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/magazine/09Karzai-t.html. Mr. Karzai was finally interviewed by the paper on June 16, 2015, p. A4, “Karzai, Vowing That He’s Done, Discusses His Afghan Legacy,” www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/world/asia/ex-president-karzai-vows-he-is-out-of-afghanistans-politics.html.

5
.   As those efforts were abandoned, in my case, and overturned in Azam Ahmed’s case, using the government’s own legal procedures, the
Times
elected not to provoke the government by making a public issue out of their efforts. In my case American diplomats had persuaded government officials that expelling the paper’s Kabul bureau chief, which I was at the time, would be unwise. Mr. Karzai later personally approved Matthew Rosenberg’s expulsion.

6
.   
New York Times,
Aug. 21, 2015, p. A4, “Calling Article ‘Divisive,’ Afghanistan Orders Expulsion of Times Correspondent,” www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/world/asia/afghanistan-orders-expulsion-of-new-york-times-correspondent.html.