justice

Person of the Month: Sunita Murmu

March 2nd, 2011

It's a sort of pervasive, long-term mob behaviourism that underlies the collective legitimization of treating women and girls like deviant contaminations to be tolerated in society only for the value of their reproductive capacities. The lies that uphold a belief system that women are the property of men, to be traded like commodities with their chastity incessantly fretted over, have to be widely adopted in order to become firmly entrenched, and thus almost immovable, in a society. When the masses participate in perpetuating an idea, however fallacious, it takes a great deal of courage to go against the grain. And so it happens all too infrequently.

But that status quo changed in Birbhum, a district in India's West Bengal, where 16-year-old wage labourer Sunita Murmu took a tormenting experience of victimization and became a maverick for justice.

Sunita fell in love with a boy from outside her tribe. Her romance with the boy was discovered in June 2010 by her tribal panchayat (an unelected caste-based assembly, sometimes self-proclaiming themselves to the 'moral panchayat', distinctive from authorized, elected panchayats in India). The panchayat members sentenced Sunita to be stripped publicly and forced to walk around her village for...More >>

Justice and the Rule of Law Non-Existent for Many in Afghanistan

February 3rd, 2011

sharia stoning death women human rights afghanistan justice rule of law On January 31, 2011, Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan sent an open letter to Afghanistan's Minister of Justice, Habibullah Ghalib, expressing outrage and demanding justice in the case of the stoning to death of a couple by the Taliban in Kunduz province in August 2010, as well as calling for increased efforts to expand the rule of law and entrench a functional justice sytem in Afghanistan. The letter was also sent to Canada's Ambassador to Afghanistan, William Crosbie, and to President Hamid Karzai. An excerpt follows:

We cannot convey in strong enough terms our shock and condemnation of the continued barbaric practice of stoning, captured so horrifically on a video clip recorded with the cell phone of a participant to this crime. The clip gives to the world graphic evidence of the stoning of 25-year-old Siddqa and her lover, Khayyam, in the northern province of Kunduz in August, 2010. It is our understanding that no one has yet been brought to justice for this abomination. Of course, those responsible include
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Afghan MP Fawzia Koofi on Negotiations with the Taliban

October 31st, 2010

Here in Kabul, there is a lot of talk about negotiations with the Taliban, as the new Peace Council has been formed. Most of what I hear from Afghans is sharp criticism over who sits on the Peace Council, including of the nine women who were appointed. Their ability to protect women's hard-fought for rights has been questioned by women leaders. Many people question the legitimacy of the process, and particularly, the credibility of those who have been appointed. The exact method of negotiations is unclear, and there is anxiety over a presumed lack of transparency.

The progressive member of parliament for Badakhshan, in north eastern Afghanistan, Fawzia Koofi, shares some of her reflections on talking to the Taliban, in the article below. She asks whether Karzai's government has the right to forgive the Taliban for their crimes, without the agreement of their victims: a very fair question, and one which nobody in the Afghan Government has yet bothered to answer.

Lauryn Oates is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist.

Excerpt from Talking to Taliban or Sacrificing Women Rights? by Fawzia Koofi

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