Defend Pervez Kambaksh!

//WORLD REVOLUTION // 2008-02-01

Revolution totally supports the campaign to release Pervez Kambaksh. We condemn unreservedly the attempts of the Afghan government to execute him for his 'crime'.

The sentencing of a student to death for 'insulting Islam' shows the reactionary nature of the Afghan government – despite the total support it has from the “liberal” US government. Sayed Pervez Kambaksh was sentenced to hanging for downloading an essay on women's rights, something which is apparently a crime under the Islamic state in Afghanistan.

The MP who confirmed the courts death sentence, Sibghatullah Mojadedi, is a key member of the US/UK backed government. He is a professor of Islamic studies and was a leader of one of the Mujahadeen groups that fought against the Soviet army in the 1980's. These theocratic reactionaries have no interest in democratic rights in Afghanistan. They would be quite happy to return its legal system to the kind that the Taliban used in the 1990s.

The planned execution of the student is politically motivated. It is part of the anti democratic nature of the Afghan government and its political and ideological basis. In upholding the ruling, MPs declared that Pervez was also "an active Marxist who propagandised his opinions to others".

The secretary of the Houses of parliament declared "people should realise that as we are representatives of an Islamic country therefore we can never tolerate insults to reverences of Islamic religion." This means that the government will not tolerate any criticism whatsoever of their religious laws or beliefs - under the guise that any criticism is an insult to their religion.

One 17 year old student in Kabul said:

"They should forgive him. He is young. He is a student. He just printed something off the internet – he should not lose his life. We should not go back to the Taliban times. We should think of something new, we should engage with him, we should talk to him and listen to his opinion."

Pervez was sentenced by a Sharia court, a court which administers Islamic justice. He was tried in secret and was not allowed access to a lawyer. A report form the Left Radicals of Afghanistan, a Maoist organisation, report that Pervez claimed to have been beaten and tortured whilst in custody.

Demonstrations in Kabul and other cities across the world have begun as a movement is being built to save the life of Pervez – we must not let his death happen!

We also call for the immediate withdrawal of all occupation forces in Afghanistan, and for new, free and fair elections to a constituent assembly!