A Candle in the Dark

I had posted about how a student was threatened with the death penalty in Afghanistan in the beginning of this year, for the victimless “crime” of blasphemy (actually, he had distributed pamphlets highlighting the lack of women’s rights in Islam).

While the death sentence was overturned, he’s been handed a 20-year jail sentence. It’s very sad that parts of the world are still so backward, where some basic human rights like the freedom of speech are absent, and where people are brainwashed into accepting ideological oppression as a way of life. What kind of democracy is it, where the citizens don’t even have the right to criticize a religion?

I guess it will take plenty of time as “freedom and democracy” grows in Afghanistan, but the transition is very painful to watch. Here’s hoping that this ridiculously unjust sentence to Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh gets overturned soon.