This was in today's Dallas Morning News. It is mainly a story about boys but there are some interesting points regarding women proving their innocence. It is encouraging to see the Watchtower is at least as enlightened as Middle Eastern countries.
Afghan justice: A system in shambles confounds judges, jailers and prisoners
09/29/2002
By TOD ROBBERSON / The Dallas Morning News
(paragraphs from middle of story)
The rape of a boy is treated only slightly differently under the law from the rape of a woman, she indicated. The victim is presumed by the court to have consented to the act unless he or she can prove otherwise. If a man is captured in the act of raping a woman, both must go to jail as adulterers until the woman can prove she was forced, Ms. Rassouli said.
Under the Taliban, however, there would have been little or no time for the woman to prove her innocence. Judges were too quick to order death of adulterers by stoning, said Fazel Ahmed Maanawi, the deputy chief justice of the Afghan Supreme Court . . . . . . . . . .
Three months ago, Mr. Maanawi visited the Wilayat prison and interviewed seven women who had been jailed by the Taliban for having "escaped" from their husbands or misbehaved.
He said he released them all, but one woman later was sent back to jail when her husband filed new charges of misbehavior against her. She claimed that she had run away because her husband was beating her, Mr. Maanawi explained.
"The wife does have some rights," he said. "If the husband is beating her for no reason, then he is the one who must go to jail." He did not say which party has the burden of proof in establishing the "reason" for wife-beating, although it was clear that the husband in this case remained free while the wife was incarcerated.
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sundayreader/stories/092902dnsunafghanjustice.ad1ba.html
Edited by - nanoprobe on 29 September 2002 14:12:14