[After Storai’s death, in a village called Mafali in the Khanabad district in southeast Kunduz, the mother-in-law put a rope in the window of her daughter-in-law’s room to give the impression that she had killed herself, Ms. Geya said. But there were signs of torture, Ms. Geya said, that led to the suspicions that Storai had been killed, Ms. Geya said.]
By Graham Bowley
Last week,
the man and his mother in the northern Afghan province
of Kunduz
The body
of the woman, known as Storai, 22, was found by the police a few hours later in
her room, and she was buried a day later, on Jan. 26.
Storai’s
death was a chilling reminder of the low status of women’s rights in Afghanistan
Also
unsettling was the revelation that the husband, identified as Sher Mohammad,
30, was suspected of being a member of a local militia that, the police and
government officials said, has proliferated in the region and emboldened
lawlessness and violence, including in the home.
According
to the police, Storai was married four years ago, when she was 18, and the had
two other children: a 3-year-old and a 2-year-old.
But in the
months after the birth of Storai’s third daughter, her husband and
mother-in-law had been nagging and arguing with her about her having had yet
another girl, said Nadera Geya, head of the Directorate of Women’s Affairs in
Kunduz.
After
Storai’s death, in a village called Mafali in the Khanabad district in
southeast Kunduz, the mother-in-law put a rope in the window of her
daughter-in-law’s room to give the impression that she had killed herself, Ms.
Geya said. But there were signs of torture, Ms. Geya said, that led to the
suspicions that Storai had been killed, Ms. Geya said.
“Her
mother-in-law strangled her with a rope and said she committed suicide herself,
which is not true,” she said. “They killed her because they did not want her to
bear any more girls. They had disputes with her even before this.”
Sayed
Sarwar Hussaini, a spokesman for the Kunduz chief of police, said the
mother-in-law, Wali Hazrata, had been arrested but Mr. Mohammad, the husband,
had fled.
Ms.
Hazrata is in police custody in Kunduz city. She has denied that she and her
son killed Storai or that her son was a member of the militia, called arbakai,
the police spokesman said.
Kunduz is
no stranger to domestic violence. In December, four gunmen, also believed to be
arbakai members, broke into a house and threw acid on three school-age girls and their mother in revenge after one
of the girls, 18, spurned one of the attacker’s advances.
Manizha
Naderi, executive director of Women for Afghan Women, which runs shelters for
abused women, said that while she had seen cases where women were bullied by
their husbands through pregnancy, and sometimes a husband even took a second or
third wife if the wife continued to have girls, murder was unusual.
“Girls are
looked down upon in Afghanistan
Heather
Barr, a researcher for Afghanistan
“What is
most disappointing,” Ms. Barr said, “is that the 2009 Elimination of Violence
Against Women law was supposed to change this, and it has had very little
impact so far.”
She said
that there were rules in the penal code specifying that a husband can kill his
wife for having had sex outside of marriage; even in the civil code, there are
rules allowing a husband to take a second wife if the first one is not
procreating satisfactorily, Ms. Barr said.
The police
said that Sher Mohammad was now being protected in Khanabad by a local arbakai
commander called Qaderak.
The north
of Afghanistan
Kunduz has
experienced a particular problem with these militias.
Only a
small percentage of the militiamen were in a program run by American Special
Forces to train them as neighborhood watchmen for their communities — a
program, the coalition says, that is now being wound down and transferred to
full Afghan authority. The others often receive weapons and some financial
support from the government as a buffer against Taliban insurgents.
The
arbakai are suspected of being responsible for other killings, as well as
kidnappings and thefts, in Kunduz Province
The
Khanabad police said there were about 1,000 militiamen in the Khanabad district
alone.
In other
recent cases of brutality against women, Ms. Geya said three girls were killed
this year in the Imam Sahib district by prospective husbands after the girls’
families would not allow them to marry.
She said
that in two other cases this year, two women were killed by their husbands.
Jawad Sukhanyar contributed reporting from Kabul and an
Afghan employee of The New York Times from Kunduz, Afghanistan
MYANMAR
[The trip, only her fourth outside Yangon since her release from years of house arrest in November 2010, demonstrates the growing prominence of the Nobel Peace laureate as the Southeast Asian state emerges from half a century of isolation.]
By REUTERS
 |
Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters
A crowd thronged the motorcade of the opposition leader
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as she campaigned on Sunday for
by-elections scheduled in April.
|
Thousands of supporters lined the roads, many shouting
"Long live mother Suu," as her motorcade wound through the rural
coastal region of Dawei, about 615 km (380 miles) south of her home city,
Yangon, the main business centre.
The trip, only her fourth outside Yangon since
her release from years of house arrest in November 2010, demonstrates the
growing prominence of the Nobel Peace laureate as the Southeast Asian state
emerges from half a century of isolation.
"There are certain laws which are obstacles to the
freedom of the people and we will strive to abolish these laws within the
framework of the parliament," Suu Kyi said to cheers from supporters,
after meeting officials of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in
Dawei.
The NLD, though well known in the country, has limited
political experience. It won an election by a landslide in 1990, a year after
Suu Kyi began a lengthy period of incarceration, but the then rulers ignored
the result and detained many party members and supporters.
The NLD boycotted the next election, held in 2010 and won
by a military-backed party after opposition complaints of rigging.
Her address on Sunday offered the most extensive detail yet
of the policies she would bring to parliament.
She said she wants to revise a 2008 army-drafted
constitution that gives the military wide-ranging powers, including the ability
to appoint key cabinet members, take control of the country in a state of
emergency and occupy a quarter of the seats in parliament.
"We need to amend certain parts of the
constitution," she said, adding the international community was poised to
help Myanmar
Although campaigning for the April 1 by-elections has not
formally begun, her speeches in villages and cities near Dawei on Sunday had
the unmistakable feel of a campaign. Many cheering supporters waved
red-and-white party flags. Some wore "Suu Kyi" t-shirts. Others
painted their faces in her party's colours.
Suu Kyi said the elections must be "free and
fair," and that any government that lies must be removed.
"Will never cheat the people. If we cannot do, we will
tell you frankly that we cannot do. And if we can do it, we will do it,"
she at Maungmagan beach near Dawei. "For the NLD to do its duty, please
vote for the NLD."
"GREAT
TRANSFORMATION"
 |
Khin Maung Win/Associated Press
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi's campaign highlights
how quickly and drastically politics is changing
in the nation once known as Burma.
|
She also addressed Myanmar Britain
"Diversity is not something to be afraid of, it can be
enjoyed," Suu Kyi said. "If there is a person who remains without
independence, it means the entire country lacks independence."
One diplomat in the crowd praised Sunday's speeches as her
best yet. "She's becoming more and more explicitly political and talking
about the importance of policies," he said.
Suu Kyi and her allies are contesting 48 seats in various
legislatures including the 440-seat lower house in by-elections that could give
political credibility to Myanmar
Business executives, mostly from Asia , have
swarmed into Yangon in recent weeks to hunt for investment opportunities in
one of the last frontier markets in Asia , after European Union and U.S.
The visit to Dawei gave rural voters a rare glimpse of
66-year-old Suu Kyi, a symbol of defiance whose past trips outside Yangon were
met with suspicion and violence by the former junta, which handed power to a
nominally civilian parliament in March.
Since then, the government has embarked on a dramatic
reform drive, freeing hundreds of political prisoners, loosening media
controls, calling for peace with ethnic insurgents and openly engaging with Suu
Kyi and other opposition figures.
Those and other changes make this trip vastly different
from a July 5 visit to Bagan north of Yangon, where she was trailed by
undercover police and kept a low profile, fearful of a repeat of an attack on
her motorcade in 2003 in which 70 supporters were killed.
Many Burmese speculate that a senior government role,
possibly even a cabinet post, awaits Suu Kyi, the daughter of assassinated
independence hero General Aung San.
But to get there, much work lies ahead.
Her party has limited resources. Its headquarters are
cramped and crumbling. Its senior ranks are filled with ageing activists. And
there are questions over how much influence it can wield in a year-old
parliament stacked with military appointees and former generals.
Her supporters, however, say her presence would bring a
powerful pro-democracy voice to a chamber where many members remain reluctant
to speak their mind.
"She will be able to do more inside the parliament
than if she remained on the outside. There are some crucial things to do urgently
concerning ethnic issues and political changes," said Ko Htin Kyaw, a
dissident who was arrested in 2007 and freed in an amnesty this month.
(Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Tim
Pearce)
