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October 23, 2005
Afghanistan: Editor Arrested For Blasphemy Against Islam
In yesterday's Pakistani Pak Tribune, the case is reported of the editor of an Afghanistani women's magazine, who has been arrested on charges of publishing articles deemed blasphemous and un-Islamic. Ali Mohaqiq Nasab ran the monthly magazine entitled "Women's Rights".
His arrest earlier this month has been condemned by organisations concerned with press freedoms within Afghanistan and international media representatives, such as Reporters Without Borders and the US Committee to Protect Journalists.
One of the stories from Women's Rights questioned the punishment under Sharia of stoning, for women found guilty of adultery. Another article stated that giving up Islam (apostasy) is not a crime. He was arrested on 1 October after a religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai complained to the Supreme Court. Mohaqiq Nasab has twice since then appeared in court. The judges have said that his actions were intentional, and that he should be severely punished.
The country's Media Commission convened on 18 October and found that Nasab's articles did not insult Islam, according to Rahimullah Samander, the head of Afghanistan's Independent Association of Journalists.
In 2003, two other journalists have been arrested for alleged blasphemy. Two editors from "Aftab", an Afghan weekly, were detained for publishing articles criticising the political manipulation of Islam by conservative leaders. They were later released, but a campaign of threats forced them to leave the country.
Samander noted that a recent study said that harassment of journalists in the country is on the rise, with many threats and intimidations initiated by warlords and government officials. He said that Article 31 of Afghanistan's media law, which stipulates that journalists are not allowed to write about Islamic issues, or religion, should be changes."
A group of Afghan writers based in Canada have written to President Hamid Karzai, referring to Nasab's arrest as "the imprisonment of al writers in Afghanistan".
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 23, 2005 5:49 AM
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