Post-Taliban Free Speech Blocked by Courts, Clerics

The magazine Women's Rights included lengthy articles about the role of women in Islam. (Griff Witte - Twp)

"If they release him, they will show to everyone that they are serious about press freedom," Samander said. "If he is kept in jail, all this talk about press freedom will amount to nothing."

Karzai's spokesman, Karim Rahimi, said the government strongly supports free speech but cannot do anything to influence the courts. "The judiciary system is entirely independent," he said.

In his magazine, Nasab suggested that a woman's testimony in court should be given the same weight as a man's, rather than half. He also questioned whether cutting off the hands of thieves was too severe a penalty. Finally, he argued that it was up to God, not to man, to punish Muslims who convert to another religion.

Nasab, who studied Islam at a university in Iran, ran afoul of the government there after he published a book questioning its religious authority. After returning to Afghanistan, he began writing increasingly controversial articles based on views he said were supported by a careful reading of the Koran and shared by other Islamic scholars. But some Afghan religious leaders disagreed vehemently, and several campaigned for his arrest this fall. Turning to the judiciary for help, Nasab walked into a Kabul courthouse Oct 1. -- and was promptly handcuffed.

Just two weeks later, he was put on trial for blasphemy. The outcome was never in doubt, according to Ahmad Nader Nadery, who heads the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

"The way the trial was conducted, it was very obvious that there was an intention that . . . without respect to rules and procedures, they were going to punish him," Nadery said, noting that Nasab was not allowed to choose an attorney and was shouted down by prosecutors and judges when he tried to speak.

Indeed, Nasab's essay in May amounted to a challenge of the very justice system that is now prosecuting him. Nevertheless, one of the judges said Nasab got a fair hearing and that his sentence offered "a great chance" for him to reconsider and apologize.

"We listened to him very carefully," said Alhaj Ansarullah Maulavi Zada, who heads the public security court. "We listened to him a lot. We gave him a three-day trial. But he couldn't answer the court. He was not showing any kind of remorse. He still said changing your religion is forbidden but it is not a crime."

Nasab contends that his prosecution was political, engineered by religious hard-liners who see him as a challenge to their authority and who are also biased against him because he is an ethnic Hazara. The Hazaras, distinctive for their Asian Pacific facial features, have long occupied the lowest rung in Afghan society. Mostly Shiite Muslims in a Sunni-dominated society, they have been victims of massacres, relegated to menial jobs and often forced to live in extreme poverty.

Even with press freedom protected by law, Afghan journalists have faced their share of constraints. Outside the capital, the Afghan news media are especially vulnerable if they challenge local powers such as militia leaders. A reporter in Nangahar province was recently taken hostage for a week after he wrote a story critical of authorities there.

"My colleagues are under threat," said Shukria Barakzai, editor of the newspaper Women's Mirror. "They haven't got any security, any safety while they are working."

Barakzai said Nasab's case should never have gone to the courts. A government-appointed media commission found him innocent of the charges against him. But not all of his fellow journalists have been so supportive.

Mohammad Fahim Dashty, editor of the Kabul Weekly newspaper, said Nasab chose the wrong time and place to raise such volatile issues. Dashty's newspaper has attacked the Karzai administration and the United States on warlordism and drugs. But he said Nasab crossed the line when he took on basic tenets of Islam.

"We know that Afghanistan is a very unstable country," he said. "We know that the tradition of religion here is very strong. So when you say something which is very new and which you believe, but nobody else does, it's dangerous. "It's a risk, and sometimes you have to pay for it. He is paying for it now."

The new Afghan constitution guarantees freedom of expression, but the law governing media says journalists should not discuss matters of religion or national security. The exact boundaries of what is permissible are ill-defined, and the courts seem inclined to interpret the limits rigidly.

After Nasab's conviction, the Supreme Court issued a religious edict, or fatwa , saying he "should be given the harshest punishment, so he will be a lesson to others." A group of 200 religious scholars and clerics in the southern city of Kandahar recently issued a fatwa that said he should be given three days to repent or be hanged.

"It is up to the central government whether they execute him," said the group's leader, Maulavi Ghulam Mohammed Gharib. "We have simply sent our message." Gharib said he had not read Nasab's magazine but had seen him interviewed on television.

Nasab conceded he was "concerned" by the fatwas against him. But he said he would not back down and hoped Karzai or international officials would intercede on his behalf.

"I made one mistake. When I heard there was democracy in my country, I came back because I'm an educated person and I wanted to help," he said. "I didn't know that still there was no democracy, still there was the influence of the Taliban and still there is the culture of the Taliban regime."