An Afghan court has passed a landmark judgement, using DNA evidence to convict a man for the multiple rape of his daughter. The victim who cannot be named to protect her safety, was abused for more than 10 years, bearing two children. Violence against women is endemic in Afghanistan and victims of sexual abuse are often themselves jailed for “moral crimes”. I met the victim, who is in her early twenties, for the first time last year after the trial against her father was suspended with the judge asking for DNA evidence. She was pregnant as a result of the abuse and held her four-year-old on her lap.According to the victim, the abuse began when her father returned from Iran after eight years abroad. She was 12 years old.The shocking story of this unfortunate poor girl was also carried on Afghan television when she took the unusual step of appearing on TV to tell her story and seek support from women rights groups and motivate civil society to help her get justice. What is disturbing for me is the bitter truth that are we a more backward society than Afghanistan, hostage to male chauvinism, because in Pakistan the Islamic Ideology Council has given a ruling that DNA cannot be accepted as evidence to convict rapists? How long can we allow this brutal distortion of our religion which stresses upon acquiring knowledge in sciences and emphasises upon giving justice to all, irrespective of faith, caste, creed or sex? Our parliament, executive, judiciary, educated religious ulema and civil society have collectively failed to protect innocent victims of rape. Have we forgotten how an innocent young married woman was kidnapped by employees in connivance with security staff of Quaid’s Mazar in Karachi and subjected to rape within premises of this national monument and yet the rapists managed to get away? How can any sane honest individual come to conclusion that the evidence of four male witnesses is mandatory to convict a rapist when this requirement is there to convict those involved in public display of immoral acts, where Almighty delegates to society the right to punish consensual sexual offenders involved publicly in immoral activity, hence posing a threat to society?
pk.shafaqna.com
Increasing rape: Why Pakistan failed to protect its women from rape?
