Details of the Case
On Monday, 25/2/1391, a number of
men, some of whom were dressed in Afghan National Police’s uniform and some
employers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stood in front of the car that
carried my two sons to schools. Then, they blocked our street and yelled that I
should get out of my house.
The first thing I did was to ask
for their identification cards and official letter from police but they had
neither. Then, I asked for my children to be removed from the area of the
scene, but even though the intruders could see my children were nauseous with
stress and fear, they did not accept this request.
I tried to take my children out
of the car and inside the home, but a few of the police men violently pushed me
inside the car as well. They beat up the driver of the car, my cousin, and
threw him out of his car. Then, they drove us to the 6th Police Department.
Due to my request, two members of
the Independent Human Rights Commission joined us. They were able to free my
children and my cousin’s car was also returned to him but only after he was
forced to sign an official letter declaring that he was not beaten.
Then, I was taken to the Attorney
General’s office, Moral Crimes Department. When I asked them what I had done,
they showed me my own case against my ex-husband and the attorney said that I
had committed violence against men.
Unfortunately, this was not the
joke. It was the official resolution of the Attorney General’s office about my
case (document 1). I described the case to the attorneys and said, “given that
I opened the case and I have a complaint with enough reasons, proof and
documents, how can I be convicted?” (The beginning paragraphs of documents 2
and 3 point to my complaint.)
But unfortunately they were not
willing to listen to me or overlook the order of the Attorney General’s office
and use their logic to judge. They kept me in the room until the end of the
official day. Then two attorneys took me to a well-known store to get a
guarantee letter. They finally released me at 7:30 p.m. but with the condition
that I would introduce an even bigger store to guarantee me.
In the coming days, I was taken
to the Attorney General’s office several times for questioning. Every time a
few employers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where my ex-husband works,
were there to oversee the case, ask questions and interfere. They never
answered my question about why I was brought there even though I had filed a
complaint and no one was interested in the violent method used to bring me.
If the situation was reversed and
my ex-husband, Hazrat Wahriz, had filed a complaint against me, the easiest way
to bring me to the Attorney General’s office would be to call me. If their
intention was to bring me and not threaten me.
Another method of bringing one to
the Attorney General’s office is to send official letters. They can send three
letters with 15 days between each letter to the residency or workplace of the
person charged with crime.
In the case prepared against me (documents 2 and
3) it says that the police had an official letter that was given to them when
they brought me to the attorney general’s office, but neither I nor any of the
employees of the Independent Human Rights Commission were notified of such a
letter. In addition to that, even though taking my children and moving them by
force is considered kidnapping, according to the 418th amendment of
the criminal law, the armed men were not convicted. Nor were they questioned
for using violence against us.
During the years that my case
against Hazrat Wahriz was under investigation, I was never able to use
governmental force to bring him to the court meetings, but Wahriz used the
Afghan Police many times illegally to harass me and my children. Documents 2, 3
and 4 clarifies that “police, representatives of the Attorney General’s office
and supervisors of the case” were there to escort me to the Attorney General’s
office. But the question remains why they had to use force to take me to the
Attorney General’s office even though I was the one who had filed the
complaint. Even the documents from the Attorney General’s office agree that my
case was a family case against my ex-husband, than what was the need for the
police to use force to take me to the Attorney General’s office with disgrace
and with my children?
In a city where terrorists and
criminals who have killed people are free and respected, called “brother and no
one dares to bring them to court with an official letter, the number of people
who came to get me and my children is only a sign of the lack of law in this
jungle of a city.
I thought that a DNA test on my
children to prove that they were not illegitimate would end all my problems and
that is why I never stopped pursuing my case against my husband to regain my
dignity. Finally on 1/5/1391, the first DNA examination for proving paternity
ever in the history of Afghanistan was implemented and proved me innocent. It
was also an accomplishment because it meant that now people would be able to do
DNA testing more easily than before. However, my situation did not change much
even after the DNA test’s results.
When I ignored all the threats I
was given for not closing my case, another case was filed against me with the
accusation of “disrespect to the police.” The date of the filing of the case
shows that it was filed after the DNA examination and after I refused Wahriz’s
request to close my case against him. The complaint letter argues that I have
disrespected the police on 25/2/1391, four months after they filed the case and
all the witnesses are police employees themselves. If the accusation was true,
why would they wait four months to file their complaint and why is it that
there are no other witnesses? Curiously enough, the case is not four or pages
long. It is a heavy piece of documents with complaints about my “disobedience”
towards Wahriz during our marriage, my lack of morals, the delay I “caused in
taking the DNA exams” and my “lack of respect towards the police.” The Attorney
General’s resolution document regarding my “violence against men” is also used
in the “disrespect to the police case” to “prove my lack of manners and
morality.”
A contradiction in the case is
that they included the document about Wahriz beating me in front of The
Independent Human Rights Commission as though they believed that making the
case bigger and heavier with more documents will hurt me regardless of what documents
are used.
On 25/3/1390, I was beaten up by
Wahriz in front of The Independent Human Rights Commission and my oldest son
was taken from me illegally by Wahriz, who does not have custody.
I went to The Independent Human
Rights Commission and asked for help. Mr. Shamsullah Khan Ahmadzai appointed a
man named Sirat to follow up with my case. Sirat recorded the testimonies of
the guards of The Independent Human Rights Commission who had Wahriz hit me and
take my child away.
I opened a case with the attorney
office of “elimination of violence against women.” A while later, an official
letter was sent to The Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) from the
attorney’s office that disqualified the testimony of the guards because the
paper did not carry the official stamp of the commission. Given the commission
did not take any steps for weeks; I went to their office and asked about the
testimony paper. The authorities responsible for the official letters gave me
the paper to take it to Mr. Mosa Mahmodi, head of executive committee of AIHRC,
for stamping. Mr. Mahmodi took the letter from me and said he would stamp and
send it to the attorney’s office.
The letter was never sent.
Instead Mr. Mahmodi sent a response letter and a CD to the attorney’s office (Document
9). The attorney assigned to the case told me that the proof was disqualified
because the commission should have sent videos, photos and testimony from a
doctor that I was beaten up and they had so far sent only an audio tape that
was questionable.
When I went to the Women’s
Department of the AIHRC, they told me that the case had been dealt with
dismissively because I had come to the commission during lunch time when I was
beaten up, so they did not send me to a doctor to get testimony. However, as an
influential organization, they had predicted that the Attorney General’s office
would have accepted the letter with the testimonies of the guards even though
they had not clarified the amount of violence that I had faced specifically.
The attorney’s office did not
even listen to the audio recording of the beating based on the argument that
even thought the AIHRC had confirmed the use of violence; they had admitted
that there were not enough documents and proof regarding the violence.
In addition to that, on the day
that I was beaten, 25/3/1390, my ex-husband took my child, despite the fact
that I was given custody. I went to the Court Decision Implementation
Department of the Attorney General’s office to take my child back, but he was
not returned to me until 37 days later. He missed school during those times and
was witness to misbehavior by his father as well.
My request to punish Wahriz for
stepping on the court’s decision and preventing my child from schooling for 37
days was ignored. Document 10 shows how Wahriz lied about having only one son
with me, my citizenship in Iran and ignoring the court’s decision but all these
were ignored. The department authorized to oversee the implementation of the
court’s decision announced the case closed and sent it to the Family Court to
clear itself of the responsibility of punishing Wahriz for his crime despite
the fact that all documents and proofs were testimony to his lack of respect
towards the court’s decision.
The cases mentioned above are
only a few of the injustices I have faced. I have eliminated much of the
insult, harassment, requests for bribery, and humiliation I faced during the
case follow-up due to lack of proper proof.
