The current controversy over the Juvenile Delinquency law illustrates the conflicts within the Afghan legal system. The conflicts are rooted in Afghan history itself. "From the 1880's until the 1960's, Afghanistan essentially had a dual judicial system. A system of sharia courts headed by clergy handled areas ... such as criminal law, family and personal law laid down in the sharia. A separate system of government courts handled state law issues, such as those relating to commerce, taxation, and civil servants." In 1964, an Afghan constitution, ratified by the Loya Jirga attempted to bring those threads closer together, but it was ripped apart again in the period of war with the Soviet Union and during the rule of the Taliban.

Following the defeat of the Taliban at the hands of US forces in 2002, an international conference in Bonn stipulated the appointment of a "Judicial Commission" whose role was to "to rebuild the domestic justice system in accordance with Islamic principles, international standards, the rule of law and Afghan legal traditions." That sweeping task proved easier said than done. A Stanford University study described some of the difficulties which arose.

• Only 10 days after the close of Afghanistan's Constitutional Convention, Afghanistan's Supreme Court violated the word and spirit of Afghanistan's new constitution. Without any case before the court, and based on no existing law, the court declared on January 14, 2004 that a performance by the Afghan pop singer Salma on Kabul television was un-Islamic and therefore illegal. The video featuring the modestly dressed Afghan woman singing about rural life was recorded in the 1970s.

The juvenile delinquency law was already approved by parliament and senate, but didn't get Karzai's approval and was sent back to the parliament for more reforms.

Punishment Ages

The reason for not approving the juvenile delinquency law was because there were differences considering the ages for male and female juvenile delinquents. This law defines the ages for punishment at 18 years for boys and at 17 years for girls. But according to the general Human Rights, those under 18 are called children.

Human Rights organizations praised Karzai's action, but it was opposed by various persons in the opposition, who argue that this law is contrary to the Islamic Sharia Law. Karzai's refraining from approving the juvenile delinquency law was praised by many parliament members who also didn't agree.
Member of Parliament Azita Fafat says that all laws that are approved by the parliament must be in accordance with the constitution of Afghanistan and the international conventions that were already approved by Afghanistan.

Islamic Sharia Law

The members of parliament who approved the juvenile delinquency law, referred to Article 3 in the Constitution which says that a law can not be accepted when opposing the Islamic Sharia law. Irfanullah Irfan, another member of parliament pointed to natural differences between man and woman, and refrained from approving the juvenile delinquency law for a lack of Sharia rules.

The juvenile delinquency law was approved six months before, after which it was sent to the Senate for final approval. The Senate-members approved the law without any changes and sent it to the presidential office. Many lawyers believe the original sources of such disagreements are in the constitutional law because the constitutional text for civil cases is not clear enough.
For this reason anyone can interpret the articles of the constitutional law with special regard to their own interests.

--------

For the first time in Afghanistan, a two days Blogging workshop was organized by the Afghan Association of Blog Writers. The participants were an Afghan journalist, a University teacher, a poet and writers from different provinces and of various ethnic backgrounds.

The main goals of this workshop are better access of journalists to weblogs and other digital media. Since Afghan print and internet media are of a very low quality, blogs could help the Afghan print media and become a milestone in the media situation in Afghanistan.

This was just the first blogging workshop in Afghanistan. The plan is to continue with more workshops in different parts of Afghanistan, including Herat, Mazar-e- Sharif, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Bamyan and Daikundi.

Cultural activities in cyberspace, theories of blogging, detailed similarities and differences between web sites and weblogs, and the techniques of making a blog were discussed in these two workshop days. And at the end, each of the participants independently opened their new weblog in cyberspace.

The world's famous weblogs, the best Persian blogs and the world most popular blogs were introduced to the group and the factors that make a weblog better were among the issues that were explained to the participants.
The participants were technically taught how to open a blog, managing, browsing, linking, ways of writing and the skill of making a framework for the blog.

The Persian blog providers such as 'PersainBlog' and 'Blogfa' were introduced. Afghans yet were familiar with 'PersianBlog' and 'Blogfa' as service providers, now this workshop helped them to learn about other powerful service providers like 'Blogger' and 'Word press'. All of the participants then built their blogs on Blogger.

Blogging is a new phenomenon in Afghanistan, and only a few people make professional use of it. Therefore holding such workshops for the first time by the Afghan Association of Blog Writers can speed up this process and facilitate the work of Afghan bloggers.

Blogging is new in Afghanistan and today most of students and youth start to use it. Even though there are many obstacles for accessing the internet, the Afghan youth refer more and more to this than before, and the number of Afghan bloggers dramatically grows by the day.
Around twenty thousand Afghan blogs have yet been created in cyberspace by Afghans inside and outside the country, and using different service providers.

 

Some people believe that this work of Afghan Telecom occurs in following the anti–Farsi/Dari efforts and thus deleting the Farsi/Dari words from the city billboards by Abdul Karim Khuram, Information and the Minister of Culture.
They claim that this is a bare break of the subscribers' rights and should seriously be condemned.

The electricity and internet are complementary of each other. But unfortunately, after seven years of the Karzai newly born administration and the presence of the International community, Kabul citizens still don’t have access to electricity. Internet was supposed to become nationally accessible, but it doesn’t. There are many Net-Cafés in Kabul, but because they are so expensive, a large number of the interested youth can not use them.

More about Blogging Workshop:

1) Afghanistan: First blogging workshop in Kabul

2) Blogging workshop in picture

3) Promoting Blogging in Afghanistan B.B.C

4) For the first time Blogging in Afghanistan- Radio Zamaneh

5) An Initiative which is going to change Aghanistan+Pictures

6) How Blogging Workshop was held?

Blogging Workshop in Italian Blogs


1) Soldi spesi bene - Meri

2) Nasim e i bloggers di Kabul - Pino Scaccia's blog

3) Nasim Fekrat, un workshop sul blogging a Kabul - Pipistro's blog

4) BlogFriends

5) BarBlog

6) PIU'BLOG

7) Tre Puntini

8) Zomberos

9) IL MURO

10) Per la prima volta un blogging workshop a Kabul, Afghanistan - WIKIO

Hi Nasim, my name is Chiara, I have 11 years hold and I saw the foto of the little girl on the ground with the ice and the snow around her. Franca,Andrea and I will try to help you. Chiara

A message to Chiara and her friends.

I am sorry to write a bit late to you. You know what? I didn't write on paper nor on my white board to come back and write to you, but every day while opening my blog i remembered your comment.
I was looking for a suitable time to write you.

I was thinking how much the picture of this little girl, sleeping at the side of the road, in the ice and snow, can touch you and makes you feel close to her. I assume that she is of your age. When I met her I saw her eyes looking at me, asking me for help. She was shivering. I saw lots of people who were crossing her by, without offering to help her or try to understand her little heart.

Do you know how much she was suffering? Do you know why she came there, to lay down in the ice and snow? Do you know if she was hungry, or even had no food to eat at all?

You might think sleeping on the ice and snow isn't a big thing for a few minutes, but how about entire days? Do you know her mother sent her to work? But because she couldn’t find a job she finally fell down, on the ice?

My heart is still full of pains, my heart is crying till now. I took several pictures of her, but not only her. There were lots of others in the same conditions.
This winter more than 300 people died of exposure to the harsh weather conditions, because they didn’t have shoes, socks, gloves and warm clothes.
May be you didn’t hear about that woman who with her child died of exposure right after returning from the city. People found her body with her small child in early morning at the edge of a road, covered with snow.

Do you know there are lots of children who can’t go to school? They don’t have a chance, and they don’t have food. There are lots of children in the streets, they are the supporters of their families. What do these conditions mean for children who have a car, bicycle, and toys and who are going to school?
Afghan children don’t go to school, they don’t even have shoes.

Let's think about how we can help survive the Afghan children

Looking back to almost seven years after Taliban, the situation of women seems to be improved, but on the contrary, the recent researches and the news published in the 8AM daily paper and several other local newspapers tell that the situation for women is going from worse to worse.

The war, conflicts, poverty and unemployment have risen. And in this context the Afghans sell their daughters and force compulsory marriages among Afghan families.

Many times, children at the age of 7, 8, and 9 are forced to marry. The conditions are severe and often they are raped. After marriage they can't go to school anymore and are faced with lots of difficulties from the family and husbands. Many of them can't bear this harsh position, and they burn or otherwise kill themselves.

Some Afghans believe that equality rights between men and women in Afghanistan is only a motto, and nothing more.
But actually the woman have been deceived by this motto, and we are witnessing the increasing level of domestic violence against women in Afghanistan. Based on shocking reports about women, domestic violence has extremely risen in the last year. About 87% of woman complain about the domestics violence, half of them are sexually abused and more than 60% of the marriages are by force.

On the other hand, decades of war left the country with thousands of widows and orphans. Today, most of them are begging in the streets. A few of them have been taken to orphanages and protective shelters. In the time of Taliban, the women weren't allowed to go to school, but today they have such advantages. But when lots of bad luck falls on them, we see things as sexual abuse, burning, and the killing of women by their husbands. Today, Afghanistan is the highest in rank of self-killing women in the world.

The international community has never been successful to improve the situation of women in Afghanistan. The international community came with their lots of efforts which come alongside democracy and equality among men and women, but still the situation for women is very concerning.

Two years ago, a 13 young girl was exchanged with a dog by her father in Kondoz province, another young girl was exchanged for a bottle of Whisky in Kabul, an Afghan young professor killed his wife in Heart province, a woman was cut her lips, nose and ears by her husband in Herat province, another woman was cut her toes by her husband, just a few weeks ago.

A non profit organization "Woman Kind" reported that after almost 7 years after the fall of Taliban, Afghanistan is still a dangerous place for women. This report said Afghanistan is a country where the women still burn themselves in order to escape from daily violence and forced marriages with older men.
The president of the Afghan House of Representatives has also pointed out to BBC-Persian that half of all women are still being abused.

Afghan women suffer domestic violence (8th March, 2007)
Sometimes Afghan men beating their wives for nothing just they like it to show their power and anger in his family member. When they feel to beat their wife they do it immediately. Many parents marry their daughters off to wealthy men aged 60 and 70. A shocking story of child bride at the age of four in Kandahar is one example of thousands. Many parents sell their daughters like materials, they are not care where does she goes and what will happened on her. About 57% of Afghan girls are married before the legal marriage age of 16; about 60-80% of marriages are forced. Read more here

-------
This photostory was already published in NATO website and you can see this text alongside with the fowling text there.

When I was very young I used to write a bit about the world – my world and the world around me. Then, with access to new technology and the Internet, I started to learn about many new things.
Soon, I remember hearing the word ‘blog’ being used in my English class. I found the first Farsi blog service. And an old friend of mine showed me his blog. It made a big impression on me. By 2004, I was running my own satire and cartoon magazine. But it was shut down by fundamentalist Islamiists. I couldn't write using my real name anymore. For a few months, I was in trouble and had to keep moving around.
But I couldn’t stay silent. I started blogging again. During the first few weeks I received great feedback from people outside Afghanistan reading my blog. They liked it because it was difficult to find independent news from Afghanistan. I was writing in both Farsi and English, and soon many readers were visiting both my blogs. In 2005, I was the ‘Reporters Without Borders’ prize winner for the freedom of expression blog.

I started encouraging young Afghans to blog. I founded and organized the Afghan Association BlogWriters at www.afghanpenlog.com (Farsi) and http://afghanpenlog-en.blogspot.com (English) to promote blogging in Afghanistan. Afghan Penlog is now a network of Afghan bloggers. I am organizing a first teaching blog workshop in Kabul for students and journalists shortly. The aim is to develop the Afghan digital media through blogging. We don't have a completely free media; I think we can fill this gap through blogs. Through these, we can practice free speech and build the way to democracy.

I started not only blogging but writing in several newspapers and magazines, both in Afghanistan and abroad. I have written about discrimination, inequality and injustice suffered by me and millions of people here. The land where I was born was made a land of pain and injustice by warlords for decades.

Blogging hasn’t always been easy. First I took notes. Then, when there was power, I typed them up. After that I saved them to a memory disk. And finally, I went to an internet café in the city upload it on my blog. It was time consuming, but it was important to tell the world that Afghani youths have suffered from war, and how they need help. And it was important to publish news that had no connection to political groups and parties – something rare in my country.

I love blogging - I think I am addicted. When I have regular access to electricity I sometimes post three times a day. I have travelled all around Afghanistan, writing about and taking pictures of every corner of my country. Many of my readers ask what the benefit of blogging is, and why spend so much time and energy on it. I answer that I wanted to learn more about my country and show people what my country looks like and how different is life in each area. I want to show the real face of my people and homeland to the rest of the world.

I also want to document this for future generations, so they don’t experience what I have suffered. I want to picture the beauty, love, hate, smile, anger, interest and peace in the face of my people. I want to show yesterday, and how much it will differ from tomorrow. I tried to highlight some of the suffering of my people. For example, the Afghan women who suffer every day from domestic violence. I pictured children, the next generation, who wander the streets. I still watch them now, begging.

For me, to blog is not only about my daily diaries, but also a window to the world. Through writing and publishing articles about children and their rights on my blog I was able to raise funds for Afghan children. For example, in autumn 2007 I received lots of childrens shoes from the USA. I distributed them among those children who were terrified of the harsh coming winter.
In the meantime, I have tried to teach myself, and today I am very happy. I have found and met lots of great people through my blogs. I often imagine seeing all of them one day. I can't describe how much blogging changed my life. I always share this experience with my friends and encourage them to start blogging.

One of the main reasons I started blogging: to share knowledge and to learn from my readers. They have taught me many things. In the country which spent more than two decades fighting, which has lacked a competent media and started from scratch, the only way is self-education. And I believe blogging is one of the most effective ways of doing this. I have learned a lot of things from my readers during the past four years. But as I wrote on my Farsi blog: "The more I learn, the more I realize I know nothing".

Some online interviews of me:
1) Interview with Globale Voice Online here
2) Interview with Internationalist Magazine here
3) Interview with gair rhydd (Welsh for "free word") is the official student newspaper of Cardiff University, here on page 20th
4) A Dialogue with Roel Verniers Belgiumist writer at Theater of war here
5) My monolog here
6) With Okke Ornstien here

--------
This was published already in Global Voices Online

------
The Afghan Penlog will launch its first blogging workshop in Kabul very soon.
Cultural developments and increasing digital media are the goals of this workshop. The first blogging workshop will take place for students and bloggers in Kabul. Afghan Penlog also decided to launch its workshops to other provinces like Jalalabad, Kandahar, Heart, Ghazni and other parts of the country will be the next steps.

Afghan Association Blog Writers
Kabul, Afghanistan
info@afghanpenlog. com
www.afghanpenlog. com
www.afghanpenlog- en.blogspot. com

------
Basir Ahang, 27 –year-old, is an independent young journalist who was directly involved in the release of Gabriele Torsello, the Italian journalist of La Repubblica, who was kidnapped by Taliban in Helmand province.

Mr. Basir was working on Torsello release under the supervision of Renato Caprile, antother La Journalist.
At one point Basir achieved confidential reports by contacting the Taliban authorities who detained Gabriele Torsello. He, thus, got to know the names of the kidnappers.

Basir kept receiving calls from the kidnappers which would inform him about the health status of Torsello. Basir never discovered how Gabriele Torsello was released.
However, after the release Basir started receiving unknown phone calls and finally left the country. After a short period he got back to Kabul. He started working with a local channel Radio "Farda" and at the same time he was working as freelance journalist with the weekly "Namah" and the La Repubblica.

Basir Ahang was also a prominent student of Kabul University, but he was harassed and intimidated by Taliban during his work with La Repubblica, while he was working hard to communicate and find information about Torsello's abduction.

Any information about him has stop to flow since a month, none knows where is he. On behalf of Afghan Association Blog Writers I express my concern about his safety.


--------
Nasim Fekrat
Afghan Association Blog Writers
info@afghanpenlog.com
http://afghanpenlog-en.blogspot.com/ {English}
http://www.afghanpenlog.com/ {Farsi}

I can’t remember the exact time but, it was around midnight, may be one o’clock. We were three people walking in darkness with a very harsh temperature. The cold wind slapping on our face with cruelty, we kept laughing and joking. A poor man police on the corner looked at us and thought we were drunken, but he didn’t know that we (a few friends) are always happy like that, especially me.

We kept walking towards the Pol-e Sorkh square; on the way I saw the sign of muddy body of a cat on the ground. I became very sad and silent for a while. I breathed the words in hushed tones; I felt sorry for the poor cat and said why human beings are so cruel? Why are we killing animals and why this cat was killed here?

How cruel are human beings. For a moment, I thought it is useless to think about it because when Afghans have been killing each others during the last three decades. I asked my friends how careless we are with animal’s life. The cat also has the right to live, to have freedom, to be able to walk freely and without fear. They should not be killed or mistreated.

If we can not give live to some one or something, why we should kill them? I feel sorry in my inside. Despite being so cruel, how can we call our self the noblest of all creatures?