This video is called A 8-year-old Afghan girl was raped and murdered in Takhar.
From British daily The Independent:
The Afghan women jailed for being victims of rape
In Lashkar Gah, the majority of female prisoners are serving 20-year sentences for being forced to have sex. Terri Judd visited them and heard their extraordinary stories
Monday, 18 August 2008
Beneath the anonymity of the sky-blue burqa, Saliha’s slender frame and voice betray her young age.Asked why she was serving seven years in jail alongside hardened insurgents and criminals, the 15-year-old giggled and buried her head in her friend’s shoulder.
“She is shy,” apologised fellow inmate Zirdana, explaining that the teenager had been married at a young age to an abusive husband and ran away with a boy from her neighbourhood.
Asked whether she had loved the boy, Saliha squirmed with childish embarrassment as her friend replied: “Yes.”
Ostracised from her family and village, Saliha was convicted of escaping from home and illegal sexual relations. The first carries a maximum penalty of 10 years, the second 20. These are two of the most common accusations facing female prisoners in Afghanistan.
Two-thirds of the women in Lashkar Gah’s medieval-looking jail have been convicted of illegal sexual relations, but most are simply rape victims – mirroring the situation nationwide. The system does not distinguish between those who have been attacked and those who have chosen to run off with a man.
Ten French soldiers have been killed in an ambush near Kabul: here. French troops pay price for Sarkozy opportunism: here.
French troops killed in Afghanistan: another sign of an escalating war: here.
French Opposition Demands Rethink of Afghanistan Mission: here.
French government, media scramble to contain opposition to Afghan deployment: here.
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Report says Marine in Afghanistan was killed by friendly fire
Aug 16 2008
A ROYAL Marine killed in Afghanistan most likely died from “friendly fire”.
Lance Corporal Mathew Ford, 30, was shot during a raid on a Taliban fort.
Yesterday, a board of inquiry report into the incident said it appeared the fatal shot had been fired from a British armoured vehicle.
It added that “lessons were learned the hard way”, blaming inadequate training for the tragedy.
Mathew, 30, died when Zulu Company of Arbroath-based 45 Commando Royal Marines were attacking a Taliban fort in Helmand province in January 2007.
Scots commandos famously returned to recover Mathew’s body in a daring mission after realising he was missing in action.
Mathew, of Immingham, Lincolnshire, lived in Dundee with fiance Ina Reid. He had been a Marine for six years.
The board of inquiry made 16 recommendations.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2008/08/16/report-says-marine-in-afghanistan-was-killed-by-friendly-fire-86908-20699076/
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Afghanistan: Women bear the brunt under the US jackboot
By Farooq Sulehria
Kabul shocks and surprises. Pleasantly surprising is not merely the
city’s scenic beauty. What also surprises is the change Kabul has
undergone since the days of Taliban rule. It has changed beyond
recognition. Instead of thousands of Kabul residents cycling dilapidated
roads or earthen streets, one witnesses thousands of latest-model cars
plying the newly built four-lane Airport Road that connects Kabul
Airport with the Hotel Intercontinental. Hundreds of recently built
structures, mostly marriage halls or housing blocks, line the road all
the way. Centuries-old Bagh e Babur has also been rehabilitated. Lake
side at the scenic Kargha Valley is thronged by picnicking Kabulis
(mostly men).
* Read more http://links.org.au/node/584
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Two convicted rapists were pardoned by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai after serving less than three years of an 11-year sentence. The victim found out when they walked into their village, forcing her and her husband into hiding. She had been gang-raped, mutilated with a bayonet and forced to walk home half naked after she and her husband spoke out publicly about their missing son, forcibly taken by armed men.
http://www.newsandletters.org/issues/2008/Oct-Nov/wwwOctNov_08.asp
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Afghan Girl Begs for Bread, Prays for Help
By Atia Abawi, CNN
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — Little Banafsha wakes up in her small mud home, has a cup of tea and braces herself for the day ahead.
She is just 11 years old, but she is the breadwinner for her family. Literally.
Without the bread that she begs from strangers, she, her sisters, her baby brothers and her mom would all go hungry.
Her father is a drug addict, focused only on his next high; her mom cares for the little ones, and heavy responsibility falls on Banafsha’s young shoulders.
Every day, she heads far from her home, trekking up and down steep hills to the wealthier parts of the Afghan capital, where she can but hope richer people will take pity on her.
She is not bitter, explaining: “My two younger sisters also work. They beg for bread and sell gum. There’s no choice.”
When she gets to the Wazir Akbar Khan district, a hangout of diplomats and aid workers, she unwraps her folded rice sack.
“Sir, do you have some bread?
Banafsha clutches the bag tight as she walks from building to building, eyeing who will help and who will not.
“Sir, do you have some bread?” she asks again.
This is her recitation for the next six hours, as she darts around in her worn blue plastic sandals, knowing that danger could be there at any turn, even in this more affluent neighborhood.
“A few days ago, some girls were kidnapped around here, and many people have gone missing. The girls’ mother still comes around here looking for them, but they still haven’t been found,” Banafsha says.
This time of the year, the sun begins to set at 4:30 p.m. in Kabul. But Banafsha continues to roam the dark streets. The 6 o’clock rush hour is her peak business time.
Her eyes well with tears, but she doesn’t allow them to fall, quickly wiping them away and biting her thumb like the vulnerable child she is.
She prays every day: “I say, ‘God, take me out of this poverty and have my father go work so I can go to school.’ ”
http://www.coastalpost.com/08/12/12.html
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