An Afghan magazine editor has been detained in Iran and continues to be held without charge. Ali Muhahiq Nasab, editor of the monthly Haqoq-e-Zan (Women’s Rights), was apparently detained by Iranian officials on 4 March in Qumm, near Tehran.
Since October 2007, Sayed Parvez Kambaksh, a 23-year old Afghan journalist, has been in prison in Balkh province, Northern Afghanistan and sentenced to execution for blasphemy by a local Sharia court in Mazar-e-Sharif. His ‘crime’ was distributing articles downloaded from the internet that questioned the condition of women under Islam. The Afghan government has supported the Islamic court’s ruling.
On Thursday, 31 January, 200 people demonstrated for his freedom in Kabul. International public opinion and pressure must join them to save his life.
Join the demonstration in London on Friday, 8 February, 2008, 12.00 to 2.00 pm at the Afghanistan Embassy, 31 Princes Gate, London, SW7
The Afghan Senate has issued a statement supporting the death sentence imposed on a journalist.
The situation for journalists in the north of the country is deteriorating, writes Harun Najafizada
Police in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz beat up a local journalist last week, apparently because he wrote a story critical of Afghan National Police activities.
Hameed Mashhoon, the editor of independent weekly newspaper Sada-e Watan (the Voice of Homeland) was beaten up in downtown Kunduz while he was buying medicine at a pharmacy.
Mr Mashhoon told reporters that right after he left the pharmacy, a police officer attacked him, hitting him with the stock of his Kalashnikov.