Kabul (CNN) -- The ordeal of Gulnaz did not simply begin and end with the physical attack of her rape. The rape began a years-long nightmare of further pain, culminating…
Kabul (CNN) -- The ordeal of Gulnaz did not simply begin and end with the physical attack of her rape. The rape began a years-long nightmare of further pain, culminating in an awful choice she must now make.
Even two years later, Gulnaz remembers the smell and state of her rapist's clothes when he came into the house when her mother left for a brief visit to the hospital.
"He had filthy clothes on as he does metal and construction work. When my mother went out, he came into my house and he closed doors and windows. I started screaming, but he shut me up by putting his hands on my mouth," she said.
The rapist was her cousin's husband.
After the attack, she hid what happened as long as she could. But soon she began vomiting in the mornings and showing signs of pregnancy. It was her attacker's child.
In Afghanistan, this brought her not sympathy, but prosecution. Aged just 19, she was found guilty by the courts of sex outside of marriage -- adultery -- and sentenced to twelve years in jail.
Now inside Kabul's Badam Bagh jail, she and her child are serving her sentence together.
Sitting with the baby in her lap, her face carefully covered, she explains the only choice she has that would end her incarceration.
The only way around the dishonor of rape, or adultery in the eyes of Afghans, is to marry her attacker. This will, in the eyes of some, give her child a family and restore her honor.
Incredibly, this is something that Gulnaz is willing to do.
"I was asked if I wanted to start a new life by getting released, by marrying this man", she told CNN in an exclusive interview. "My answer was that one man dishonored me, and I want to stay with that man."
Tending to her daughter in the jail's cold, she added: "My daughter is a little innocent child. Who knew I would have a child in this way. A lot of people told me that after your daughter's born give it to someone else, but my aunt told me to keep her as proof of my innocence."
Gulnaz's choice is stark. Women in her situation are often killed for the shame their ordeal has brought the community. She is at risk, some say, from her attacker's family.
We found Gulnaz's convicted rapist in a jail across town. While he denied raping her, he agreed that she would likely be killed if she gets out of jail. But he insists that it will be her family, not his, that will kill her, "out of shame."
Whether threatened by his family or hers, for now, jail may be the safest place for her.
Shockingly, Gulnaz's case is common in Afghanistan.
CNN asked a spokesman for the prosecutor to comment on the case. The reply was that there were hundreds such cases and the office would need time to look into it.
By
way of this discriminatory process, the third largest ethnic community
in the country, consisting of more than 2 million people, have been
denied of even a single Indian-majority constituency.
Both
have been exploited for partisan political advantage by the Umno-led
government and are common and effective forms of electoral abuses that
have been implemented to shortchange the Indian population and render
them ‘voiceless’ at the ballot box.
It
is indeed shocking and discouraging that, while Indians reside in large
numbers in many areas, like Sungai Petani, Padang Serai, Batu Kawan,
Nibong Tebal, Ipoh Barat, Bagan Datoh, Teluk Intan, Tg Malim, Sg Siput,
Klang, Kota Raja, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Kuala Langat, Kapar,
Sepang, Kelana Jaya, Teluk Kemang, Rasah, Cameron Highlands and Lembah
Pantai, the Election Commission has not seen it fit to carve out even a
single Indian-majority constituency.
Sarawakian
voters number 886,000, and they have 31 parliamentary and 71 state
seats. The Orang Ulu, meanwhile, who form just 0.005% of the Malaysian
population, have four state seats created especially for them.
order
to total about one-third of the total number of Singapore’s
parliamentary constituencies, with the view to protecting minority
interests.
This
is due to the lack of appropriate representation. The voter make-up in
present state and parliamentary constituencies make the Indian voters
the minority. As such, their rights are not championed in the national
and state legislative assemblies.
