KABUL (SW): Her face was pale, looked depressed and full of sorrow. She said she has no hope for life because she thinks everyone wants to abuse her.
Malika, a 45-year-old woman who has been the victim of sexual assault, due to the failure of the government to prosecute her case, seemed disappointed and now after four years from that incident, facing the hardship in life, she blamed herself for all the misfortunes came on her way, because she is a woman.
The negligence of the judicial authorities in her case has disappointed her so badly that she has almost lost all hopes in life and thinks of various ways of committing suicide.
With a frightened face and timid eyes, Malika started her story with “It’s not been long that I came to Waras”. She continued: “like thousands of other residents in here, we are busy working on our farms. My husband alone cannot do all the farming chores; to help him, most of the time; I also go to the fields and work with him.” Malika said she never thought working outside the house would destroy her life one day.
She burst into tears and said, “they have ruined my life and now they live happily”. She was embarrassed to talk about the incident occurred to her; however, she said that all her relatives and tribe have left her under the pretext that whatever happened to her brought shame to them.
One can still see the horror that she saw four years ago by seeing a stranger-man in a restroom. The questions as such “what did that man wants from her?”, “Maybe he entered the women’s restroom unknowingly”, “Maybe he thought there is no one in the restroom”; these were the thoughts with Malika at that particular time. She said she was begging to God that the stranger man shall go outside, but unlike her imagination, at a sudden, the man strangle her with his both hands and then raped her. The stranger left, however, left Malika with a world of frustration and a vague future.
It’s been four years since that day, but Malika’s life is still locked up at that moment of dismay. Still, when she sleeps, she sees the hideous face of that man in front of her eyes and can’t go to sleep due to trepidation.
Malika is alone and without any support, however, Hussain Daad, Malika’s husband felt lonelier than his wife Malika. Hussain Daad felt his courage and guts have been violated. He said he always sees that man who disrespected his wife; he knows him but cannot do anything about it.
Hussain Daad said that he had no enmity with anyone and has been busy with his life and work and has always been honest with others. He is a shopkeeper and has always tried to sell his goods at a reasonable price and that has often caused the anger of other competitors because they have lost their customers to him.
According to Hussain Daad, Abdul Wahid is a powerful man in the village and has raped his wife to settle scores with him.
Hussain Daad didn’t sit calm, he filed a claim with the police and judicial institutions with the proofs in his hands, however, the judicial system failed to help him in this regard.
Malika and her husband spent four years in Kabul and Bamiyan and frequently travelling between the two cities in order to bring the perpetrator to justice, but to no avail.
Hussain Daad said that all the documents proved that the man raped his wife and the suspect also confessed to his crime. However, when these documents were handed over to the Bamiyan provincial court, part of the evidence disappeared and the suspect, Abdul Wahid, instead of being charged with rape, was fined a fine of five thousand AFN for trespassing to someone’s private property.
Malika said, a few days after that incident, Abdul Wahid once again entered her house and wanted to rape her for the second time. Malika’s husband reported this to police and Abdul Wahid was arrested.
After the preliminary investigation by the public prosecutor’s office, Abdul Wahid confessed to sexual assault and attempt to rape her the second time as well, but in a suspicious way, the prosecutor’s office changed the rape and sexual assault case to trespassing to a private property case.
In the letter No. 8/9, 2014, the Bamiyan provincial prosecutor’s office to provincial court that : “Around 10 pm, according to Malika’s husband complaint, police, a national security office and a representative of attorney general’s office, went to Hussain Daad’s house, in Waras Bamiyan, and arrested Abdul Wahid, the suspect in this case. The public prosecutor’s office after the completion of the preliminary investigation of the accusation of rape of Malika has changed the case to trespassing to private property and in accordance with article 431 of the Penal Code, request the court to prosecute the case against Abdul Wahid”.
Malika said with disappointment that the case has been tampered with, and the public prosecutor – Hamidullah, due to his personal relationship with Abdul Wahid had removed all evidence from the “memory card” which proved Abdul Wahid guilty of rape.
According to Malika, Abdul Wahid is a wealthy, prominent and influential person in the village, and he had bribed the public prosecutor Hamidullah in order to dismiss the case against him.
As stated in the letter No. 35/69 of 14/7/2015, the criminal court of Bamiyan, “at the judicial session, dated 15/7/2015, with the chairmanship of Qasim Mohadi regarding the theft of the documents and tampering with evidence, public prosecutor Hamidullah has been released under the bill”.
But in the letter No 2377 dated 15/8/2016, the head of the administrative offices of the president of Afghanistan wrote to Bamiyan provincial court that “Malika, a resident of Waras Bamiyan, has filed a complaint to the Presidential Palace that a man named Abdul Wahid, a resident of Waras Bamiyan had committed sexual assault against her, but the court has decided otherwise (though, the evidence have been missing from the case), the [president office] request you to follow up on the case and deal with perpetrator in accordance with the law”.
However, Hakimeh Alizadeh, a lawyer and head of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in Bamiyan said that she had been aware of the case. She said that a number of documents have disappeared; therefore, the public prosecutor was fined by the provincial court in this regard.
But Sultan Ali Soroush, head judge of Bamiyan’s provincial court said the trail of Malika had been completed and the public prosecutor has also been fined by the court for the disappearance of the documents from the evidence.
According to Sultan, Malika’s case was closed while some of the documents disappeared from the evidence which seems contradictory and therefore Malika’s case remained without any proper judgment.
Meanwhile, a number of lawyers and members of the Wolesi Jirga said that the judicial authorities do not have the will to enforce the court order against the perpetrators and accused them of failing to comply with the implementation of the decisions on the cases at their appointed time.
Malika’s rape case has been not paid attention to for nearly four years although Malika has suffered emotionally and psychologically as well as financially following up her case for the past four years. Because, according to her, women are always considered at fault automatically, even if they have not committed the crime, though, Malika said if her case is not been prosecuted promptly, she will commit suicide because she has no hope to live if her perpetrator walks free.
This is not the first time that the powerful people and government officials have been accused of rape, torture, and humiliation of the ordinary citizens. For many times, not only Malika but similar others have ended their lives or others killed them because their rights have been violated and the government has given a free ticket to perpetrators. But so far, such cases have rarely been properly investigated and seldom the perpetrators been imprisoned, that’s unfortunate.
ENDS
