SAYED Pervez Kambaksh, 24, the Afghan student sentenced to death for the “crime” of promoting women’s rights, has been freed.
Sayed Pervez Kambaksh
But in the same week that he gained his freedom, Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese journalist who was among 13 women arrested for wearing trousers on July 3 in a raid by the public order police in Khartoum, has received a month’s jail sentence.
Ten of the women were fined and flogged two days later.
Kambaksh’s death sentence for downloading information on women’s rights from the internet caused world-wide outrage. A petition to secure justice for him attracted more than 100,000 signatures, and the Afghan government came under intense pressure from the international community to release him.
The Independent has learned that he is now living outside the country after being secretly pardoned by President Karzai.
Kambaksh was moved from his cell in Kabul’s main prison a fortnight ago and kept at a secure location for a few days before being flown out of the country. Prior to his departure, he spoke of how his relief was mixed with deep regret at knowing he was unlikely to see his family or country again.
Hardline Islamists, including a number of political figures close to the government of President Karzai, have repeatedly called for Mr Kambaksh’s execution and were fiercely critical when an appeal court reduced the original death sentence to 20 years’ imprisonment. One senior diplomatic source said:
The danger is very real and we are well aware that there will be a reaction when it becomes clear that Pervez had gone. It was imperative he was safely out of the way before attempts could be made to block that.
The Kambaksh case has highlighted how human rights gains have been eroded since the fall of the Taliban eight years ago. Although Mr Kambaksh has found refuge thousands of miles away, he will have to live the rest of his life in fear of retribution.
Kambaksh was originally arrested in October 2007 after some students and staff at his university in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of the country accused him of disseminating material on women’s rights which “insulted Islam”. He was charged with blasphemy and sentenced to death at a trial three months later. He told The Independent from his cell in Balkh prison that a “confession” had been beaten out of him and he had not been allowed legal representation or allowed to speak during the four-minute hearing behind closed doors.
Meanwhile, we learn from the Telegraph that Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese woman convicted of violating public indecency laws by wearing trousers outdoors has been jailed for refusing to pay a 500 Sudanese pound (£130) fine imposed by a court in Khartoum.
Lubna Hussein
Hussein elected to be tried for her “crime” rather than submit to an instant flogging and a fine, and her case, which received international attention – and proved a major embarrassment to the Sudanese authorities – came to court yesterday
The court spared Mrs Hussein, who has promised she will appeal against any conviction, a flogging for wearing “indecent” trousers, but instead fined her.
But Hussein remained defiant.
I won’t pay. I’d rather go to prison.
Speaking as they emerged from the court hearing which was barred to the press, witnesses said the court had ruled that Hussein be jailed for a month if she failed to pay the fine.
Under Sudanese law, she could have been sentenced to a maximum of 40 lashes for “indecency” under Islamic principles.
Women in trousers are not a rare sight in Sudan, but the authorities can take offence at trousers which reveal too much of a woman’s shape, leading to accusations from rights groups that judgement is arbitrary.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 8th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Between this and todays main headlines (not Peter Andre and airbag lady's divorce) 'lunatics' doesn't begin to do justice to this lot. There will be more 9/11 and 7/7-level attacks in the US and Europe in our lifetimes, all in the name of getting afterlife brownie points from a fictional prophet called Allah.
Death sentence for downloading women's rights literature – what else is there to say but WTF!!!!!?
September 8th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
She has been released, her union apparently paid her fine to secure her release. Bloody brave woman I reckon.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
And he's still got to remain in hiding for the rest of his life!!!
September 8th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
At times like this all you can really say is "JESUS MOTHERFUCKING ROLLERSKATING CHRIST!"
September 8th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
I know some of you are going to raise your eyebrows heavenward (or skywards at the least) and say "Here he goes again", but don't be too smug about these "fanatical muzzies" will you? My old evangelical friends still believe that women should not "usurp authority" over men, in society as well as in the church, and the wearing of trousers of any kind by females is strictly forbidden, on the grounds that this constitutes the wearing of "men's apparel"!
September 8th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
You are quite barriejohn.
1st Corinthians 3-10 sums up a womans place within Christianity:
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
I think women should be allowed to wear whatever they like under their burqa's.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Yep. As I've said before, it's the fundamentalist Christians and Muslims who've actually got it right! They are the ones who have correctly understood their prophets' true teaching. What religion the others are following is anyone's guess!!
September 8th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Maybe they're not wearing anything, remigius. Did you think of that?
September 9th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Often.
September 9th, 2009 at 6:50 am
May Allah forgive you!! (But I hear they've got big bazookas!)
September 9th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
You've got to admit that Mr Corinthians has a point there.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I don’t think our moral judgment should be linked to words written thousands of years ago by men living in a completely different historical, social, and cultural milieu. Let’s read Koran and the Bible as literary works, but , please, don’t refer to them for moral judgments! As if Greeks refers to the Iliad and Germans to the Beowulf. The only writ we should hold sacred is The Universal Declaration of Human Right.
Anfd to hell with religious fundamentalists. Their religion is no more fit for free men and women.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Christ on a bike. Who let Hale and Pace in?
September 9th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
He's got a lot of points, tomrees, but unfortunately they don't all tie up! For instance, in the above passage he gives instruction to women who are praying or prophesying, whereas in a later part of the same epistle he says: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak"!! Some Christians have tried to explain this away by saying that the Corinthian women were "gossiping" too much in church, but any fool can see what the thrust of the argument is – "they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law"!!! (I Cor. 14:34)
September 9th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
If only 'being found guilty of trousers' had been a Goon Show plotline from 1958, or thereabouts. But no, it's a real-world crime, right now in a country that's a signed up UN member state. Amazing.
September 9th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Following on from Remigius and Barriejohn………….
What did they shout at the Muslim Stripper?
Show us your face!
(Sorry)
September 9th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
The Management!
September 12th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
following on from tony e
if it was a male muslim stripper, there would be no need to shout "show us your nuts". It would be taken for granted since he's muslim.
September 13th, 2009 at 12:10 am
That's very funny indeed, valdemar!
"Colonel Bloodnock: this woman has been found guilty of wearing trousers in a public place. What should her punishment be?"
"Forty lashes and a heavy fine, Seagoon. This sort of behaviour must be stamped out before it becomes a threat to society!"
How we would have laughed!!
September 13th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Hilarious! Sadly, I wasn't alerted to all these comments of three days ago. I wonder what other gems I have missed in the past!!
September 13th, 2009 at 12:15 am
That remark by wurble was a bit disappointing. I actually thought our comments were quite amusing, remigius!
September 13th, 2009 at 12:19 am
Do you think we could revive The Goon Show if we put our heads together?
September 16th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Barrie, aren't there enough goons amongst the religiots? Surely we don't need any more!!!
Godless not gormless
September 16th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Something's just occurred to me – you don't think that Spike Milligan wrote The Koran, do you? That would certainly explain a lot!
"Look at all these virgins Neddy – what are they doing?"
"I don't know, but it's virgin' on the ridiculous, Eccles!"
September 16th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
It's certainly ridiculous enough, but Spike was funny whereas the koran is most definitely not! He was Spike the non believer though, maybe there's a link there if you catch my drift. Mo liked the idea of that alright!
Godles not gormless
September 16th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
I do see what you mean there, GNG, but it's my mistake. The writer of the Koran was not Spike Milligan, but that third-rate comic Psycho Sillyman (Catch-phrase: "It's the way I yell 'em!"). I often get them confused!!