In a glimmer of good news in an otherwise horrifying story, it turns out that the Afghan woman identified as Gulnaz who was jailed for or being a victim of rape or as Afghan law describes, "adultery by force", has been pardoned without the condition that she marry her rapist. Gulnaz's lawyer, Kimberly Motley, told the BBC  that the whole not-having-to-marry-your-rapist clause was clarified personally to her by President Hamid Karzai's office--a report that contradicts this several stories (and ensuing outrage) this week which had stated the opposite. The New York Times along with several news agencies reported that "... the announcement [Gulnaz's pardon] also made it clear that there was an expectation that the woman, Gulnaz, would agree to marry the man who raped her." If it all sounds pretty horrific that's because it is. But in this case, Gulnaz's visibility and her publicized story has actually helped her. The Guardian noted that Gulnaz's "participation in the documentary film, unintentionally led to a storm of publicity that has resulted in the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, intervening in the case of the 19-year-old ..." adding that Karzai "will soon head to an international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn to seek financial support from foreign donor," which all points to Karzai's sudden, and perhaps less-than-altruistic change of heart.

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Alexander Abad-Santos