After a Pakistani minister alleged that the video of a teenage girl being flogged was a “Jewish conspiracy,” the 17-year-old girl Chand Bibi in the film has claimed that the whole thing is a hoax and that she was never flogged.
The video has appeared widely around the world and in Pakistan. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the flogging as being contrary to Islamic teachings — even though the Pakistani government has surrendered Swat valley to Taliban justice and Sharia law.
Chand Bibi, reportedly told an Islamic judge and a government commissioner that the incident never happened. She has, however, asked not to have to appear in open court. The denial is being heavily distributed on the internet, as here.
Provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain insisted that “We condemn the acts of repression against women. … But the incident depicted in the videotape never took place in Swat.”
There is always a bit of suspicion concerning the pressure imposed in such a case given the international outcry.
According to the information minister, the commissioner and the judge visited the village of Kala Killay to record the statements of the couple on the directive of the chief secretary of the NWFP. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, ordered officials to appear before his court and also produce the girl who was flogged.
Sorry the link to the incident i mentioned is as following:
http://www.pro-pakistan.com/2009/04/02/afghan-massacre-the-convoy-of-death-video-documentary/
We all condemn all such acts that are done in the name of Islam. Having said that, i think as rightly said by some one above, there are numerous tortures happening everywhere but i wonder why only few happening in Pakistan or Afghanistan come into the lime light of media. Just look at the following link with documentary evidence of the massacre of around 8000 Pashtuns in Afghanistan by the Americans and their allies. Why their mass graves never came to light? Why they were labeled as Talibans and left abandoned?
Having said that, i think one incident whose authenticity is still questioned, should never be used to judge the whole country. Pakistan is a beautiful country with amazing people who will never let such incidents take place. However, we do expect the same from others civilized people in the world.
this video wasn’t over a silly taboo…the girl allegedly had sex with her father in law…
much has been said about reinstating this supreme court judge and in the original story he was quoted as wanting the girl to be brought in front of him
yet, this guy goes to the village…and will probably get the girl punished again in private even though she denied the video happened
all to say to the american public that this guy should have been reinstated sooner
as said earlier the punishment should have been in private…YES, OF COURSE!!!
Hmm.
1) Religious extremists beat a girl for violating a silly taboo.
2) Publicity causes international condemnation.
3) The girl denies the incident ever occurred.
Of course we should believe her denial. What possible reason could she have to kowtow to brutal thugs?
I second Jill.
No one should be surprised at the girl denying that she was flogged now that the Taliban have been embarrassed by the video. After all she is still living among these murderous killjoys and knows that they can do much worse to her.
lol
I will stipulate that consensual recreational spanking can be quite a hoot and should in no way be construed as torture. Especially if you are prudent and use a safe word.
Although I will not plead diminished capacity, I should also stipulate that could be the bedtime vodka tonic talking. But probably not.
AY, I am of the school that says anything can be funny if properly approached. As evidence, I present the late master: George Carlin.
Oh but recreational spanking I have been told is fun. I am not a fan of it but who am I to say.
I am only kidding. The things some people will say to you.
Jill,
Check this out. More reports from Red Cross.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/world/07detain.html?hp
From the article:
“Based on statements by 14 prisoners who belonged to Al Qaeda and were moved to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in late 2006, Red Cross investigators concluded that medical professionals working for the C.I.A. monitored prisoners undergoing waterboarding, apparently to make sure they did not drown. Medical workers were also present when guards confined prisoners in small boxes, shackled their arms to the ceiling, kept them in frigid cells and slammed them repeatedly into walls, the report said.
Facilitating such practices, which the Red Cross described as torture, was a violation of medical ethics even if the medical workers’ intentions had been to prevent death or permanent injury, the report said. But it found that the medical professionals’ role was primarily to support the interrogators, not to protect the prisoners, and that the professionals had “condoned and participated in ill-treatment.”
At times, according to the detainees’ accounts, medical workers “gave instructions to interrogators to continue, to adjust or to stop particular methods.”
The Red Cross report was completed in 2007. It was obtained by Mark Danner, a journalist who has written extensively about torture, and posted Monday night with an article by Mr. Danner on the Web site of The New York Review of Books. Much of its contents were revealed in a March article by Mr. Danner and in a 2008 book, “The Dark Side,” by Jane Mayer of The New Yorker, but the Red Cross investigators’ conclusions on medical ethics and other issues are new. ”
___
Any doubt about war crimes now, Obama? You, Holder? What is described above is just one step away from Josef Mengele. The longer you drag your feet, it’s bad for your chances come re-election and increases the eventual cost of the payback to those who violated our Constitution. But pay they will. It’s your choice as to whether it’s in court or not. We the People might just be happy with Cheney in prison. Soon that won’t be enough.
Great point Jill, you can also add to your analysis a long list of deceased former opponents and critics of the Taliban.
This is a link to Glenn Greenwald. It’s about the latest claim of complete immunity from scrutiny for internal spying by the Obama administration. This is another thing that should never be part of any govt.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
Sad. In so many ways.
And get ’em, Jill.
Well said, Jill.
meant to say, torture should NOT be sanctioned. DUH!
I don’t know what happened here but I have a feeling that after one is whipped, one will say what she is told to say to avoid being whipped again. This reminds me of our torture business and why torture of any kind should be sanctioned by the law, overt or covert, of any nation. Once you’ve inflicted pain as part of “law enforcement” everything is up for grabs. It’s why we shouldn’t use “evidence” gathered via torture. Flogging is a type of torture. It is allowed in some systems of “justice”. Torture makes people say anything and I suspect this accounts for a recantation of an event that did take place.
Sure, I believe it.