EU Censors Film On Afghan Women

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EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
OP - November 11, 2011, 09:39 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15678935

Quote
The European Union has blocked the release of a documentary on Afghan women who are in jail for so-called "moral crimes".

The EU says it decided to withdraw the film - which it commissioned and paid for - because of "very real concerns for the safety of the women portrayed".

However, human rights workers say the injustice in the Afghan judicial system should be exposed.

Half of Afghanistan's women prisoners are inmates for "zina" or moral crimes.

A statement from the EU's Kabul delegation said the welfare of the women was the paramount consideration in its decision.

No official from the delegation was prepared to be interviewed about the film.
No new dawn

Some of the women convicted of "zina" are guilty of nothing more than running away from forced marriages or violent husbands.

Human rights activists say hundreds of those behind bars are victims of domestic violence.

Amnesty International says it is important to "lift the lid on one of Afghanistan's most shameful judicial practices".
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

You hear the story again and again of women going to the police and asking for help and ending up in prison instead”

Heather Barr Human Rights Watch

The documentary told the story of a 19-year-old prisoner called Gulnaz.

After she was raped, she was charged with adultery. Her baby girl, born following the rape, is serving her sentence with her.

"At first my sentence was two years," Gulnaz said, as her baby coughed in her arms. "When I appealed it became 12 years. I didn't do anything. Why should I be sentenced for so long?"

Stories like hers are tragically typical, according to Heather Barr, of Human Rights Watch, who is carrying out research among Afghan female prisoners.

"It would be reassuring to think that the stories told in this film represent aberrations or extreme case," she said. "Unfortunately that couldn't be further from the truth."

She has interviewed many women behind bars, who were victims twice over - abused by their husbands, or relatives, and then by those who were supposed to protect them.

"You hear the story again and again of women going to the police and asking for help and ending up in prison instead," Ms Barr said.

A decade after the Taliban were overthrown, Afghan women are still waiting for justice, campaigners say.

Ms Barr said: "It's very important that people understand that there are these horrific stories that are happening now - 10 years after the fall of the Taliban government, 10 years after what was supposed to be a new dawn for Afghan women."

For many that new dawn has not come, but for Gulnaz there is now the hope of freedom.

Her name is on a list of women to be pardoned, according to a prison official, but as she has no lawyer, the paperwork has yet to be processed.

Gulnaz's pardon may be in the works because she has agreed - after 18 months of resisting - to marry her rapist.

"I need my daughter to have a father," she said.
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #1 - November 11, 2011, 10:31 PM

What?! You mean 10 years of war has not helped? Huh. Whoda thunk.

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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #2 - November 11, 2011, 10:36 PM

To be honest things will never change in Afghanistan.
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #3 - November 11, 2011, 11:05 PM

Lame excuse, they could blur their faces and hide their voices, or something. Things like that are done all the time to protect the identities of the interviewees. By not finding a way to get their story out would mean they would never get help, as well as the women after them.

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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #4 - November 11, 2011, 11:15 PM

Quote from: QueenIsabel on November 11, 2011, 10:36 PM
To be honest things will never change in Afghanistan.

Well, they seemed to be doing a lot better in the 50's and 60's. Y'know until the US and UK had to fight the evil commies by arming the religious fanatics there. Kinda like Iran... hmmm..

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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #5 - November 12, 2011, 12:06 AM

Quote from: Sakura02 on November 11, 2011, 11:05 PM
Lame excuse, they could blur their faces and hide their voices, or something. Things like that are done all the time to protect the identities of the interviewees. By not finding a way to get their story out would mean they would never get help, as well as the women after them.

That would have been the best option. There's most likely a political motive behind the decision.

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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #6 - November 12, 2011, 12:33 AM

Quote from: QueenIsabel on November 11, 2011, 10:36 PM
To be honest things will never change in Afghanistan.

Not until they are given the lord's words.
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #7 - November 12, 2011, 12:36 AM

Things are changing every place all the time. For the people of Afganistan things just have not been improving very measureably For the women in prison conditions are very poor indeed.

Perhaps telling their individual stories on TV would put them in greater danger.

Just a thought. The women mentioned who appealled and her sentence, then it was increased from 2 years to 12. Well if just appealing can bring such retribution how much more could happen to some one who brought international complaints to the officials? I'm not disagreeing that they need to be complained about or legal action taken. I'm just saying it needs to be done in such a way that it doesn't harm the women that it's intended to help.

Revealing the circumstances not the individual accounts may be enough to prompt international interest to the piont which the Afghan government will act to change the situation.

If at first you succeed...try something harder.

Failing isn't falling down. Failing is not getting back up again.
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #8 - November 12, 2011, 03:12 AM

Quote from: Sakura02 on November 11, 2011, 11:05 PM
Lame excuse, they could blur their faces and hide their voices, or something. Things like that are done all the time to protect the identities of the interviewees. By not finding a way to get their story out would mean they would never get help, as well as the women after them.

Agree
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #9 - November 12, 2011, 03:16 AM

Quote
Lynna
Revealing the circumstances not the individual accounts may be enough to prompt international interest to the piont which the Afghan government will act to change the situation.

I wish western countries would stop fooling around with politics and do more and support women's rights groups in Afghanistan.
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #10 - November 12, 2011, 03:22 AM

Quote from: QueenIsabel on November 11, 2011, 09:39 PM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15678935

EU Censors Film On Afghan Women ..QueenIsabel starts a thread

That is O.K EU can sensor it but the world has plenty of ways to put that in to public.. Facebooks, tubes. twitters..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDoNCWvpwLU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_uL8zFHkRU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FhfTmmwW7k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBCDuf6WLE

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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #11 - November 12, 2011, 04:04 AM

Quote from: QueenIsabel on November 12, 2011, 03:16 AM
I wish western countries would stop fooling around with politics and do more and support women's rights groups in Afghanistan.

Quote from: QueenIsabel on November 12, 2011, 03:12 AM
Agree

Okay. I've got an idea QueenIsabel, you find out what prison these women are in. We'll get a few more people to help us and we'll plan a prison break. I have some experience in chemical weapons use and prison security since I work in corrections. What skills do you have that will be useful in this prison break?

Like really!

Yes, supporting women rights and education is one way to help change the lifes of these women.

But that wont make any differnce if the laws of the land allow women to be inprisoned enstead of the men who rape them. That takes pressuring the government doesn't it? I may be mistaken poor living conditions and unjust laws might not be a reason for governmental changes.

If at first you succeed...try something harder.

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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #12 - November 12, 2011, 04:31 AM

Quote
But that wont make any differnce if the laws of the land allow women to be inprisoned enstead of the men who rape them. That takes pressuring the government doesn't it? I may be mistaken poor living conditions and unjust laws might not be a reason for governmental changes.

I don't see the government of Afghanistan changing any time soon. Nor I do see President Karzai having an epiphany on women's rights any time soon.
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #13 - November 12, 2011, 10:12 AM

I hate reading stuff like this because it makes me so depressed. The amount of pain and suffering in this world, especially against women is mind blowing. How can anyone have so much contempt and hate for another human being just because they are of a different gender is baffling.

Sometimes I wish there was an exchange programme... all those fundie preachers in the UK who keep proclaiming that islam should take over blah blah, should be sent to places like this... bet it would be utopia for them... in return a few thousand of these woman should be allowed to come over. Some have already been abandoned by their families and treated with contempt in their societies. I would love to give them the opportunity to discover the joys of education and living without fear.

Not a very sustainable idea of course, because what people really want is not to be taken out of their country, but to stay in their homeland and see it change for the better.... but still! :(
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #14 - November 12, 2011, 01:37 PM

Quote from: QueenIsabel on November 12, 2011, 04:31 AM

I don't see the government of Afghanistan changing any time soon. Nor I do see President Karzai having an epiphany on women's rights any time soon.

Good you have your right to your opinion. It is not an envalid by any means beccause I have a different opinion.

Perhaps you are just starting to really form yours? Which is okay also. Even if we think our opinions are well formed new information or changed cirumstance may cause us to change our opinion. Which only means we are thinking inteligent people.

Quote from: QueenIsabel on November 12, 2011, 03:16 AM
I wish western countries would stop fooling around with politics and do more and support women's rights groups in Afghanistan.

Just in matter of a day or so, you went from being absolutely sure supporting womens rights groups was the way to go to now saying you don't think President Karzai will have an epiphany on womens rights.

If you will please: Explain to me what these women rights groups are going to do if the changes they purpose are not supported by changes in the laws of the land.

The scope of the problem is huge a resolution will have to be from many angles/levels of social, legal and governmental change.

Or the prison break, perhaps?

If at first you succeed...try something harder.

Failing isn't falling down. Failing is not getting back up again.
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #15 - November 12, 2011, 09:14 PM

By supporting women's rights groups it will send a message to the government they are under our radar and give more power to these organizations.
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #16 - November 12, 2011, 09:18 PM

They wont give a crap. They know we'll support them because we don't want Afghanistan under the Taliban.

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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #17 - November 12, 2011, 09:43 PM

Quote from: QueenIsabel on November 12, 2011, 09:14 PM
By supporting women's rights groups it will send a message to the government they are under our radar and give more power to these organizations.

So you want to send a message to the government? Politics! DUH

Or perhaps the prison break is still a good idea?

If at first you succeed...try something harder.

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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #18 - November 12, 2011, 10:02 PM

Yes I want to send a message to the government.
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #19 - November 13, 2011, 09:04 AM

What Afghanistan needs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-7QsBWWpA0

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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #20 - November 13, 2011, 09:24 AM

Quote from: posthuman on November 13, 2011, 09:04 AM
What Afghanistan needs:

Not just Afghanistan, but the world!
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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #21 - November 13, 2011, 09:38 AM

Indeed.

Regarding women, I think we're discriminating women if we think they aren't as fucktarded as men. There certainly is a problem of men being overbearing on women, but there's also women, with all the opportunity in the world, who remain fucktards:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0EVDq64rKE

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Re: EU Censors Film On Afghan Women
Reply #22 - November 13, 2011, 09:42 AM

Yes I suppose the less opportunities you have, the more you want and value the freedom to learn and develop yourself. And if you live in a country with lots of these freedoms, you end up being more worried about your hair and what you're going to wear on your next night out with the girls
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