Student Sentenced to Death for Downloading an Article in Afghanistan on Women and Islam

Student Sentenced to Death For Downloading an Article

September 4, 2008

As much as we debate the legality/illegality of downloading certain things on the Internet, I don't think any of us has ever feared for our lives because of our Internet download activity.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as we are; a 23-year-old student in Afghanistan is currently sitting on death row because he downloaded an article on women's roles in Islam on the Internet. Seen as blasphemy, the young man now faces death. Please watch the video for more details.

10 Comments

leeluvfashion 4 years 37 weeks

Just.. horrible. I feel so bad for that person; living in a country like is like walking through a mine-field, one wrong move and you're scr*wed. I hope someone can help this young man out; no one deserves to die over downloading an article!

lildorothyparker 4 years 37 weeks

Ignorance seems to be running strong in many of your comments. If you'd like to paint all followers of Islam as following the "worst" religion, I'd like you to take a glimpse through the history of Christianity. It is fundamentalism, people, not religion. Seems to me that we Americans have plenty of fundamentalism going on at home too.

L0neLyHeArT 4 years 37 weeks

Its tragic and sad...:(

supercharger5150 4 years 37 weeks

Extremely sad.

Calimie 4 years 37 weeks

It's one of those things that I get a bit of a hard time believing. As EvilDorkGirl above said, it wasn't anything that we could consider negative or bad. It was just an article. But of course, he was trying to learn, to understand foreing views of his culture and make a small research into a topic that is so fundamentally important for him and his society. Every deviation from the stablished dogma gets punished by death. I hope he gets his sentenced commuted.

hshs1 4 years 37 weeks

Its sad that even Muslims can be so ignorant of their own religion. How is learning about Islam blasphemous? That is complete BS. As a Muslim, it makes me sick. Oh, and for the record, its not the religion, its the people! The most common known FACT in Islam is that knowledge (of Islam and the world) is extremely important. Islam would never say no to gaining knowledge. It's just like in any religion, you have the good and the bad. Unfortunately, the bad have the power in Afghanistan and that is sad.

EvilDorkGirl 4 years 37 weeks

Wow... I'm really, really proud to be an American right now. And glad that I was born where I was, and into a feminist family. I'm just having a REALLY hard time believing that Allah would want the Taliban kill this guy. I know that this is a radical form of Islam, but isn't there something equivalent to the Judeo-Christian "sanctity of life" concept in Islam? I also don't understand what's so bad about an article regarding women's roles in Islam. It seems like it could be very valid academic or religious research. Maybe if it was porn I'd have a little easier time understanding why this poor student is in so much trouble.

bigestivediscuit 4 years 37 weeks

I think religion in general is pretty scary. What can I say - I live a highly blasphemous life.

glam sugar 4 years 37 weeks

That's just horrible. There are much worse crimes out there than downloading an article. :shakeshead:

nintennuendo 4 years 37 weeks

Articles like this and this, http://www.filecabi.net/video/arab-truth.html , make me rethink my idea that christianity and scientology are the worst religions.

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