19yr old Afghan woman, Gulnaz, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for adultery after relatives discovered the unmarried lady was pregnant. (It's a crime in Afghanistan to have sex outside of marriage). Gulnaz told authorities that her cousin's husband had raped, and made her pregnant and that she had tried to fight him off on the night he attacked her. The alleged rapist, who was also arrested and locked up for adultery, denied it was rape.
After Gulnaz incarceration, the EU and other world human rights organizations got involved and called on the Afghan president to release the rape victim. Yesterday Thursday December 1, Afghan President Hamid Karzai pardoned Gulnaz, on the condition that she will marry her attacker.
Gulnaz had initially refused a judge's offer of freedom if she agreed to marry the rapist. She changed her mind because she didn't want her child, who had been born in prison, to grow up in prison. And also because that was the the only way to bring peace between her, her family and her rapists family, as she is said to have brought shame to both families.
About half of the women jailed in Afghanistan are imprisoned for so-called "moral crimes" such as sex outside marriage, or running away from their husbands.
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