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Afghanistan's Democratic Deficiency
By Claus Christian Malzahn
A few caricatures in a Danish newspaper caused bloody riots in
the Muslim world. But now an Afghan man has been sentenced to death for
converting to Christianity. Afghanistan has told the West it should mind
its own business. Come again?
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AFP
Abdul Rahman holds a translated version of the
Bible at a Kabul court.
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Asked in autumn 2001 what the German army wanted to do in Afghanistan,
then defense minister Peter Struck replied that his country's liberty
needed to be defended not just at home, but in the Hindukush as well. Not
much later, NATO chased the Taliban out of Kabul. A murderous regime
collapsed -- a regime that had terrorized its population, especially its
female population, in the worst possible way for years. For the first time
in a quarter century of war, Afghanistan seemed able to look forward to
better, more peaceful times.
But German liberty has not arrived in the Hindukush -- not that it
was to be expected. True, the Taliban have withdrawn into the
southern part of country and into the region around its border with
Pakistan. But radical Islam has remained. Even today, outside of Kabul,
few women would dare to step onto the street without a veil. In fact, the
veiled women one sees on the streets are privileged -- since most women
are not allowed to even leave the house at all. The presence of the German
army in Kabul has not changed the fact that women are being denied basic
human rights in Afghanistan, just as in many other parts of the Islamic
world.
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THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
In a trial that has sparked worldwide indignation,
Afghan citizen Abdul Rahman is facing the death
penalty on charges relating to his conversion to
Christianity. Though freedom of religion is one of the
values enshrined in the Afghan constitution, the legal
system also contains many elements of Islamic
religious law, the sharia. Afghan President Hamid
Karzai has assured the international community that he
will do what he can to ensure "full
maintenance" of human rights during the trial.
Rahman's family reports that he lived for a number of
years in Germany, and his fate has become a major
political issue for the government in Berlin.
In a telephone conversation with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel on Wednesday, Karzai pledged that
"the case would be quicky resolved within the
framework of Afghan law and with regard to
Afghanistan's international obligations." And in
a television interview on Thursday, Foreign Minister
Frank- Walter Steinmeier
said he spoke to his counterpart in Kabul earlier this
week. "I expressed our expectation, and this is
not just a German expectation but a European one,
too," he said, "that the process not only be
transparent but also end with a result in which the
death sentence is not confirmed." Steinmeier said
his government would closely observe the trial, but
that rash decisions - -
such as punishing Karzai's government by
withdrawing German troops from Afghanistan -
- should be
avoided.
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Nor should anyone have expected German military intervention to change
this state of affairs. Afghanistan is a country shaped by archaic
traditions. And the Islamic constitution ratified by the Loya Jirga, or
grand council, in Kabul is certainly an improvement over the
murderous charade of justice the country knew under Taliban rule. But
Afghanistan is no properly democratic state. The fact that a Muslim is now
facing the death penalty because of his conversion to Christianity shows
how far this country still is from guaranteeing its citizens the
most basic rights. In neighboring Pakistan, an ally in the war on terror,
the situation is hardly any better. There Christians, who make up between
five and 10 percent of the population, live in ghettos, faced with the
constant threat of violence. Many Christians living in Islamic countries
exist in a state of religious apartheid.
The response to Western criticism of the Kabul verdict is being
dismissed as a case of foreigners "meddling" in Afghanistan's
"domestic affairs." This means it's high time to send a clearer
message. It's not just about Abdul Rahman, who has chosen to become a
Christian for reasons that are no one's business but his own. It's also
about the women locked away in Afghan prisons for having been accused of
adultery. It's about female students who can't walk down the street by
themselves because a few male illiterates might get it into their heads to
attack them. And it's about the many hundreds of thousands of Afghan women
forced to live their lives behind walls -- without access to
education, without the right to happiness. There is a good chance
that President Hamid Karzai will pardon Abdul Rahman, as he has many of
the imprisoned women, who are often convicted on bogus adultery charges
made up by men who simply want to get rid of them. But this is not
about mercy; it's about basic human rights. The West should insist on
nothing less.
This is in no way merely a domestic matter -- it is a question of the
validity of international human rights. When a Danish newspaper published
a few more or less idiotic cartoons, Islamic rage flared up. Now that
human lives and basic rights are at issue, we're hearing statements that
could just as easily have been made during the Cold War. Back then,
the phrase "domestic affairs" was invoked by the Soviet empire
every time the West criticized its human rights record. What concerns
Abdul Rahman and the women of Afghanistan concerns us too. And if the
German army can't defend this kind of liberty in the Hindukush, then it
should leave. Our soldiers have sworn allegiance to the rights enshrined
in the German constitution; there's no reason to turn these soldiers into
toothless operetta characters.
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