E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSFereshta Kazemi's film "The Icy Sun" breaks new ground for Afghanistan, where victims of rape can be forced to marry their attackers to preserve their families' honor. NBC News' Mandy Clark reports.
KABUL, Afghanistan — A woman is raped. Instead going after her attacker, the law and society imprison the victim.
This is often the reality in Afghanistan. To bring attention to the issue, Afghan-American actress Fereshta Kazemi took the role of a rape victim in a recent film, "The Icy Sun."
"The concept of honor for the men rests on a woman’s shoulders," said Kazemi, 33. "Her brothers and her family feel that they have been raped of their honor."
This perception of honor means that society often blames the women who are attacked, she says.
"There is this atmosphere where women are vulnerable to having people talk about them or say negative things or say that she wanted to be raped or say, 'Look at the way they were behaving,'" Kazemi said.
These deeply ingrained attitudes exist against a hostile backdrop for Afghan women and girls: The country remains one of the most dangerous countries in which to be a woman, according to a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey. Close to 90 percent of women face at least one form of physical, sexual or psychological violence in their lifetimes, according to a Human Rights Watch annual report. Up to 80 percent of women face forced marriage, Thomson Reuters Foundation reports.
Additionally, many Afghan women are imprisoned for so-called moral crimes, which include running away from an abusive home or fleeing a forced marriage. Human Rights Watch estimates that around half of the approximately 700 women and girls in prison in the country are facing such charges.
One woman’s real-life story vividly illustrates the problems confronting women who are violently attacked.
In 2009, Gulnaz’s cousin’s husband tied her to a bed and raped her when she was home alone. She was left pregnant from the assault. Her family reported the crime to local police in the northern province of Kunduz, but instead of going after her rapist, officials jailed her for adultery. While in prison she gave birth to a baby girl, Masqa.
Her plight made international headlines over a year ago. American lawyer Kim Motley took on her case and helped Gulnaz get a presidential pardon in December 2011.
"I think in theory justice was done. She was released, she was exonerated," Motley said. "What trumped that once she was released was the culture. It was the … perception of her probably going to fail as a woman, as a single woman with a kid in Afghanistan."
After her release, Gulnaz was confined to a women’s shelter for 13 months. She felt it was no different from prison. Afghan officials blocked Gulnaz, now 22, from getting papers to apply for asylum in another country, Motley says.
The same officials pushed Gulnaz into a decision -- two weeks ago, Gulnaz married her rapist.
"Basically there were people in the Afghan government who helped to facilitate and pressure her to marry the guy," Motley said.
Many Afghan rape victims are forced to marry their attackers as a way of restoring the family honor.
Against this backdrop, Motley says she understands why women hesitate to go to the authorities.
"I can certainly understand a woman not wanting to report a rape," she said. "Frankly … if I was raped here as an Afghan woman, I don’t know if I would do the same," she said.
A recent United Nations report found one positive trend: In some areas, such as the major cities of Kabul and Herat, more women are reporting rape. This does not necessarily mean that more are being assaulted, only that victims are willing to come forward. In contrast, in Taliban strongholds such as Logar and Wardak, there were no reports of rape. U.N. officials say in the report that this does not mean that no rapes occurred but that women were too scared to report them.
So when it comes to security, it is safety close to home that seems foremost in the minds of Afghan women.
As one American diplomat speaking on the condition of anonymity said:
"I am always taken aback when I talk to Afghan women and ask them what worries them the most. Their reply is domestic abuse. They are more concerned with being beaten or set on fire by their husbands or uncles than any larger issue like Taliban."
Related:
Afghanistan: Where actresses risk their lives for their art
'Game with a purpose': Vietnam vet, teen bring Scouting and help to Afghanistan
Photos: Afghanistan - Nation at a crossroads
Leave a Comment:
1st-have to say to them "GET INTO THE 21ST CENTURY" don't care if it is their custom, I am not your possession nor was I put here to serve you. You know they act like that there, but get them to this country and the first place they want to go to is the STRIP CLUBS, what a bunch of hypocrites. If they were doing their jobs in the first place, the rapes would never happen. You as the men of the families are supposed to watch over them and protect them from this stuff. So basically you are failing on your part, not theirs!!! BE A REAL MAN!!! SERIOUSLY!!!
Islam and custom. It is sick, very sick. Problem is, Muslim males have no shame and can't be shamed into acknowledging their pathology, nor doing anything about it. Also, the women defend Islam and custom and typically blame the women. So, both sides are in denial and neither side will even look at it. Oh, yeah, they cry and whine when a woman is raped and or murdered, but they do nothing. It is a poisonous meme that seems to have become part of their genetics. They haven't even taken a footstep out of the sixth century, so the 21st century is not even visible on the horizon to these mind poisoned primates. And, yes, that part of the world is thick with porn, primarily violence/rape porn, child porn and animal porn.
I think Pakistan is the worst for the porn industry but America is not any angel when it comes to porn. However, you are correct in that most Muslims are in denial about it being wrong to use women or child brides in the dispicable way they do. Many of the women do blame each other and buy into the game of fighting over who will be the most favored slave. Sick stuff
You use going to a Strip Club and not taking care of the home front, true. Let there be a woman with a child or to divorece herself of the situation and she in verbally back stabbed by all the same kind men that caused her to take the action that she did. As for the men that take care of home and family we fail to see this for what it is. Although not a physical rape, it is a form of rape, putdown and belittling of these women who did not want to be in that situation. We have the same thing and ideas here.
I hope our govt keeps these men from coming here, seems like we always get a lot of immigrants from countries like this when fighting a war. Attitudes like that are something we dont need here.
Our "government" is letting them in like fire ants and roaches.
I was raped, repeatedly, by a boyfriend in the early 1990s in the US. Don't ask me why I didn't just turn him over to the police and leave him. I was scared. The only person I told was my (Catholic) priest. He told me to pray for forgiveness. Don't get me wrong, we are lightyears ahead of Afghanistan, but we are not "there" yet.
As long as you and other victims like you allow it to remain a secret, nothing will change. Evil hides in dark secrecy. It always has. The popular media equivalent is vampires. They thrive in the dark and burn up in sunlight, just like rapists burn up in the light of truth and exposure.
Your Priest is a nut job. He is telling you that you were raped because YOU neede forgiveness! From what, a bad decission. We all make a bad decission once in a great while, It's called the learning process. Get out now!!
When some countries and cultures (that embrace torture) live five hundred years behind those countries that are trying to move into the 21st or 22nd century through education for all, science, enlightened sense of community, respect for diversity and democracy without deviance or dysfunctionality, spirituality instead of monotheistic rigidity, inclusion that is based on respect, equality and individuality - rather than generic beliefs about groups of people based on idiocy, cluelessness, prejudice, arrogance and patriarchy...how do countries that are ahead "like the US, Canada, France...even India, Mexico and Poland" move forward with some societies dragging them behind?
These countries, their cultures and policies drag everybody down. Some of the men have this attitude, "If I cannot have power and success I will drag you down"...in stead of learning and working together humbly!
They have to figure it out!
And other countries should not be wasting time with these countries...which love to bring everybody down to their level. We are trying to elect women officials and make women into professors, astronauts and scientists while some cultures are just trying to come out of veils.
Afghanis are more honest and humble than Pakistanis who pretend they have a stable superior system...and constantly attack democracies so they can feel important and superior. And stupid Americans, Middle Easterners, Indians and Asians learn the worst from these cultures. Leave them alone...let them figure it out!
So stop it now...and start investing in development...not military engagement. And focus on countries that are already in the 20th century at least!
No Middle Eastern or Pakistani Muslim should every criticize a Black inner city person. They have to look at their own backyard first!
Sorry, Doc, they won't work it out on their own, probably not with our influence either. Islam is an insurmountable regressive, stultifying influence. It's possible that the youngsters will leave it behind, however. Even the blood-covered, limbless, bruised and broken victims of Islam still defend it. Not much chance with those wherein the meme has attached it tentacles permanently.
so, their rednecks are redder-neck-ed than our rednecks? How to you tell them apart....ours have the tobacco juice running down the corners of their mouth.
Their's have blood running down the corners of their mouths.
Conservatives are in charge of that country. That's why it's like that. You can argue if you like, but you're just spittin' in the wind.
"Conservatives"? Is that your euphemism for blood lust Islamic maniacs?
Sadly, it's not just Afghan women that suffer this injustice. It's a wide-spread shame that can be corrected if we all see that the burden of guilt, shame, and punishment belong to the perpetrator. Check out the situation in Somalia...after 21 years of civil war and the barbarianism that goes along with it, their recently instated president is making tentative steps to turn society's views about rape.
Rape is a violent crime and these rapists have no pride and respect for themselves. Being nothing but less than human, these uncivilized animals prey on others to feel good about themselves. And to make these rape victims marry their attackers as a way of restoring the family honor is even more of the same.
In addition, we cannot point a finger, because many persons from so-called civilized and/or developed countries go to third world countries to rape young boys and girls (some younger than their own children) pretending that they are going on vacation. What a shame! What a disgrace! -IT IS A SERIOUS CRIME- even if the person is an adult. And I strongly support fatal punishment! for these perpetrators because they move from one victim to the other like snakes in the grass.
Yes it is a serious crime, but the vast majority of our population is innocent of that crime. Does this happen? Yes. But you can't blame everyone for the crimes of the few. And in Afghanistan this is happeniong to 90% of the women. It's become a way of life. This doesn't make it right, just like it doesn't make it right that only a small percentage of our citizens break the law and engage in these sick activities.
"But you can't blame everyone for the crimes of the few."
Yes, you can, because the others are complicit. It's all a part of Islam.
We can point a finger at injustice, no matter where it is or who's doing it. I can, anyway. You can do what you want. Maintaining the moral high ground with these savages is meaningless.
As Marine General Jim Mattis told his troops, some guys, its just fun to shoot. Of course he got in trouble with the PC Police, politicians who have never heard a shot fired and couldn't lead a patient with amoebic dysentery to a toilet. Our "leaders" think that they can reason with muslims, and there are a few who can be rational. But the bulk of them, especially the multitude influenced by the Saudi support of Wahabism, are no more rational than the flat earth society and far more dangerous. For those who continue to ask for "tolerance", reality will come as a very nasty shock. Of course, US tolerance has been predicated on our "need" for oil and we've witnessed the largest transfer of wealth in history from the West to the religious whacko, misogynists, jerkwads who enslave their women and will destroy even their children in the name of Allah. Yep, shooting them is fun.
One thing I have never understood, why do people ask others to solve their problems for them. There was a time that for the number of Haitians who landed on US soil, they could have overthrown their government and made a better country.
Now its 90% of the women in Afghanistan. In such a heavily armed country just image if that 90% of the women took up arms against their attackers. It would make the remaining men think twice about the consequences of how they treat their mothers, wives and daughters. Oh hell it’s such a violent place and so backward, they could even make many of the deaths look like accidents. Just plant an IEE in front of the attacker’s front door and boom – “Gee I guess he pissed off the Taliban”. How about poison – “Oops, he must have eaten something that made him ill”. Poisonous snake in his boxer drawer; “Gee, it must have come in when the window was open.”
I refuse to refer to this as murder; it’s just the death penalty being handed out as justice. Hell if the women meted out a little justice, our troops could probably come home, because it’s those same backward thinking men who rape women and think it’s their fault who don’t like our influence and have fought tooth and nail to evict us.
I would say top street heroin producer nation in the world would rank higher than a few rapes for shame. From what I have seen of the ladies on tv, if I was a male living there, I would vacation somewhere else for sex. I haven't heard of foreign troops, American, British, Russians, etc bringing home war brides.
Can we please get over trying to shame Afghanistan and like countries into something resembling modern thought on women? It hasn't worked, it won't work. We need to just get out of that ridiculous country. If the Muslim women in that country whose lives are meaningless aren't committing suicide in droves, it's obvious, they think things are ok the way they are. They are livestock and if they're ok with that, who are we to try to change it.
Maybe it really would be best if you stayed silent.
Silent: You are absolutely correct!
"This perception of honor means that society often blames the women who are attacked, she says."
In other words, there is no honor. Well, it is sort of a crybaby, whiner honor.
Muslims wouldn't know honor if it kicked them in the groin.
I think George W. Bush is responsible.
One third of all women have been raped and that is a conservative estimate. If any women thinks the work is done they are mistaken. Since eastern countries have gained more economic power the women's movement has been pushed back. For many eastern countries not just Muslim dominated ones rape child brides and utter control over a woman's body is a reality. It seems impossible that such barbaric behaviors continue in the twenty first century but the reality for these women is akin to customs and beliefs from the seventh through the nineteenth century. Even in western countries where laws try to protect women there are still men who think they have the right to dominate women in all matters including the use of her body.
Skrekk, this is the 21st century. Have you noticed? Talking about what used to be is essentially irrelevant except to cowardly equivocators like you. Regardless of where they actually learned their pathology, they're still doing it today. That's the point. But, hey, go ahead, remain in your dhimmi delusional state.
This actress is very brave taking on this subject.She will no doubt end up with a price on her head.I pray for her safety.Women in Afghanistan are considered nothing more than property.As a woman it makes me very sad to know that women in other countries do not have the freedoms,access to education and good healthcare that American women have.If our troops leave Afghanistan without our government addressing these problems of rape,human rights violation,education,adequate healthcare,infrastructure and a Democracy then we have accomplished nothing. We've had enough money,troops and resources to accomplish many things besides hunting down AlQaida.
blue unicorn - glad you agree. Oh no, we aren't as awful as Afghanis (who appear to be animals), but you still don't get much help if you are raped in the U.S. As a reporter, I have watched women who had the courage to report a rape, get raped once again in court. Once a judge gave a rapist a shorter sentence because he didn't get the charge right. Said the woman couldn't tell a long fingernail from a knife at her throat. The point of the aggravated feature of the rape charge was that the woman was in fear of her life.
So much for "Love thy neighbor" ! Religion is the poison of Society!
This is sickening..............
The problem is that these cultures who dominate women are derived from the ancient stories of the Bible, Adam and Abraham. I recently researched Islam because I was curious as to how the Muslims, Jews and Christians all have tried to murder each other for thousands of years even though they are all derived from the same source, the Hebrew Writings.
The answer I got from an Islamic site was that Everyone is actually a Muslim including Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Eve(women) is the source of all evil of the world. Abraham had hundreds of wives and Concubines(slaves for sexual use). Of these women Abraham had hundreds of Sons that were cherished and prized. But very little is said about the women except that they were traded off or exchanged for goods or to arrange marriages for the purpose of making the family ties politically stronger.
The women who were lucky enough to be offered in marriage to a wealthy man had to be part of a Harem where he could have multiple wives. The women of the Harem could actually buy slaves to present to their husbands for sex so that they would not be obligated to fulfill that marital responsibility.
All I can say is "WOW" for the men who are wealthy enough to afford such good wives. When you think about it, there is no wonder that the male dominated society still embraces the OT as if it were written yesterday by god's own hand. One has to wonder if Hallmark has much business on Valentines day? I can imagine one that says, "To a Great Husband,Honey, I wanted to buy you a new slave, but I got you this card instead."
Women are blamed for being raped because the perception of Islam is that Women are evil and subhuman and until either the world society steps in to deny them this liberty of persecution of women, it will continue. One way is for the women of the world to STOP accommodating the males of these oppressive societies. When a western women travels to one of these countries, they should were their makeup and dress as they would in New York City. however, they should also have a group of armed guards to protect them. The recent incident where the New York House wife/professional photographer was murdered in Afghanistan is a case where the murderers should be caught and punished as brutally as is the laws of Islam. Beheaded in a public square. however, Islamic laws do not protect women so that will never happen.
Do you get it? The governments of the Islamic countries need to move along with us into the 22nd century where women and all people have a right to freedom and life.
This is a thought for all the Islamic radicals out there. The Largest, most powerful military's of the world are allowing WOMEN into combat arms. You men are going to be seeing a new type of women; Armed, Dangerous, well trained and on their periods.
Lazarus
US military personnels committed rape in Japan, Korea and Okinawa on local women.
It is propable that Afgan women got raped by troops of the multi-national forces but not reported.
So after 10 tough years, tons of money and thousands of lives what's changed,,,, not much,, was it worth the effort ??? no way. It's time for us to get real,,,, and get out with what we have left of our troops & pride.
it funny how the men use rape to punish the victim ---they are so man honor oriented that they - the men have little blame for it. its also strange that they view it the mans duty to control the womans base drives --what about the controlling of theirs?? as long as they allow the male centric society there can be no justice . they are stuck with a mindset of man can do no wrong--a prehistoric concept that those in power -the men seek to maintain.
Afghanistan. Whadda country. A true tourist paradise. One to avoid at all costs.