"After she was raped, she was charged with adultery. Her baby girl, born following the rape, is serving her sentence with her."

Nothing can compare to the treatment of women in Islamic countries except getting a wisdom tooth pulled. The European Union (EU) created, paid for and produced a film about the abuse of Afghan women but decided to not show it, fearing for the safety of the Afghan women shown in the film. What irony; make a film about the persecution of women in Islam and then stop it from being shown because the persecution of women in Islam might get these same women killed.

Rape needs four male witnesses to prove it occurred and since that rarely happens the women are then charged with adultery. It is not a males fault if they feel the need to implant their seed in an unwilling womb, it is the lure of the womb which Muslim males are drawn to and they are powerless. The majority of sexual abuse in Islamic countries is directed against women, Afghanistan being a prime example of the hegemony males have over females.

From the BBC November 10 by Orla Guerin

EU censors own film on Afghan women prisoners

The European Union has blocked the release of a documentary on Afghan women who are in jail for so-called "moral crimes".

The EU says it decided to withdraw the film - which it commissioned and paid for - because of "very real concerns for the safety of the women portrayed".

However, human rights workers say the injustice in the Afghan judicial system should be exposed.

Half of Afghanistan's women prisoners are inmates for "zina" or moral crimes.

A statement from the EU's Kabul delegation said the welfare of the women was the paramount consideration in its decision.

No official from the delegation was prepared to be interviewed about the film.

No new dawn

Some of the women convicted of "zina" are guilty of nothing more than running away from forced marriages or violent husbands.

Human rights activists say hundreds of those behind bars are victims of domestic violence.

Amnesty International says it is important to "lift the lid on one of Afghanistan's most shameful judicial practices".

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“Start Quote

You hear the story again and again of women going to the police and asking for help and ending up in prison instead”

Heather BarrHuman Rights Watch

The documentary told the story of a 19-year-old prisoner called Gulnaz.

After she was raped, she was charged with adultery. Her baby girl, born following the rape, is serving her sentence with her.

"At first my sentence was two years," Gulnaz said, as her baby coughed in her arms. "When I appealed it became 12 years. I didn't do anything. Why should I be sentenced for so long?"

Stories like hers are tragically typical, according to Heather Barr, of Human Rights Watch, who is carrying out research among Afghan female prisoners.

"It would be reassuring to think that the stories told in this film represent aberrations or extreme case," she said. "Unfortunately that couldn't be further from the truth."

She has interviewed many women behind bars, who were victims twice over - abused by their husbands, or relatives, and then by those who were supposed to protect them.

"You hear the story again and again of women going to the police and asking for help and ending up in prison instead," Ms Barr said.

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