Saturday, July 14, 2012

Progress in Afghanistan

Never let it be said that Walt is an incurable pessimist. If the human condition is improving, if the world is becoming a better place, Walt will be the first to say so. Even if the place in question is Afghanistan and the people Afghan Muslims.

So, following my post today on how NATO is going to buy its way out of Afghanistan, I think it only fair to report a small sign of progress. I have some Reuters video for you, showing the public execution, earlier this month, of an Afghan woman. This happened in a small village in the Parwan province, about an hour's drive from the capital Kabul.

The woman, only 22 years old, was reportedly killed after two local Taliban strongmen accused her of adultery. She was an adulteress, they said, because she had had some kind of "relationship" with both of their accusers. Polygamy is OK for Muslims, but polyandry isn't.

Warning: the video contains graphic content. In the video, you'll see an old man reciting verses from the Koran and declaring, "We cannot forgive her, God tells us to finish her. Juma Khan, her husband, has the right to kill her." The burqa-clad woman is then shot dead at point-blank range, while some 150 men cheer her death and shout, "God is great", and "Long live mujahideen" -- which is what the Taliban call themselves.



Afghan government officials have blamed the Taliban for the execution. When the Islamic fundamentalist movement was in power from 1996-2001, public executions of adulterers were common in Afghanistan. Apparently the Taliban didn't see the video, however, as they have denied being involved in the killing.

The woman's execution has sparked an international outcry. In Afghanistan, democractically-elected president Hamid Karzai has condemned the killing as "un-Islamic and inhuman", and ordered police to find the culprits and bring them to justice. Whether anything has actually been done is not clear at this writing.

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