Sunday, February 3, 2008

Update On Afghan Journalist Sentenced To Death

International pressure is beginning to mount on Afghanistan in the case of the college student sentenced to death for printing from the internet an article on women's rights.

Reporters Without Borders and the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, are now alleging that the charges against Kambaksh are actually in retaliation for his brother's investigative journalism, which detail human rights abuses at the hands of political and paramilitary factions in northern Afghanistan. Kambaksh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi (who is a leading independent journalist in the region) has published articles naming government officials who extort money from locals in some articles, according to Jean MacKenzie, country director of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting.

In another piece by Ibrahimi (which is among the articles he is best-known for) he describes the "dancing boys," teenage boys who dress up as girls and dance for male patrons at parties thrown by some commanders in northern Afghanistan.

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