Abusive Afghan Husbands Want This Woman Dead

Change takes time, I applaud this woman for her brave efforts. Much more needs be done.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01 ... shir-herat
Abusive Afghan Husbands Want This Woman Dead
Maria Bashir's house has been bombed; her children threatened with murder. Meet the prosecutor risking everything for justice.
— By J. Malcolm Garcia
January/February 2011 Issue

No one could have imagined then that the chief prosecutor would one day be this tiny woman, whose sad eyes and pursed lips always make her seem to be biting back tears. Before Bashir's appointment in September 2006, no Afghan state had ever had a female chief prosecutor. As chief prosecutor, Bashir has sought to help women voice their grievances in the courts instead of by the gas can. She began charging families who sold their daughters into marriage with kidnapping. She started encouraging women who survived self-immolation to hold abusive husbands to account.

Meanwhile, Bashir, now 40, has made the uncomfortable transition from symbol of hope to target. "Life is impossible," Bashir says, "and every day is worse." Telephoned death threats are routine. Threats against her family have forced her to home-school her two youngest children and send the oldest abroad. In a city where the council of clerics has issued a fatwa against women leaving the home without an appropriate male escort, she began to feel alone and exposed. She requested around-the-clock security, but the government refused. She asked for a bulletproof car and was denied. Then, in 2007, her house was bombed.

Now, as she leaves her office, Bashir's clicking heels keep pace with the rolling gait of four armed guards—hired by the American government, not her own.

Thanks for the reminder bb!

Nmysys, bleeding hearts, liberal human rights groups had been calling for years before we ever invaded Afghanistan that something needed to be done to end the abuses of girls and women by the Taliban. And if 9/11 hadn't happened, we still wouldn't be there. I don't adore the left, I just identify with many of its stances and causes, and I at least recognize that both the left AND the right don't do a damn thing about any of these issues unless it profits them in some way or they are forced into it by overwhelming public opinion. My outrage isn't blinded by partisanship, it's focused on injustice, inequality, and unfairness. I don't have my head in the sand about the inequality of women by many Muslims, but I also don't do broad sweeping generalizations that all Muslims are like that. And when I see a story about a woman like Bashir, I will call it out and bring light to their plight - and maybe you and others will think of donating money to the Central Asia Institute, like I have, founded by Greg Mortenson, the man in Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools, who's over there building schools for girls to help improve their situation? http://www.threecupsoftea.com/how-to-he ... institute/

Central Asia Institute’s mission is to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The philosophy is to empower the local people through their own initiative. As of 2010, Central Asia Institute has successfully established 145 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide (or have provided) education to over 64,000 students, with a emphasis on girls’ education. Over the first decade of CAI’s evolution, our programs and projects expanded to several regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan with an emphasis on education, health issues, environment and cultural preservation.