The Taliban took control of Kabul on September 27, 1996, though it would take them more than a year to control the whole of Afghanistan. The battle to remove the Taliban was one of the first priorities of Operation Enduring Freedom (initially called Operation Infinite Justice) when it was launched in September 2001, following the attacks of 9/11. Since that time, 482 US military personnel have died in and around Afghanistan. 281 other members of the coalition have also been killed, including 87 Britons and 78 Canadians. This year, 7 US soldiers and 7 coalition military have died.
Last year was the bloodiest year of fighting, with 117 US and 115 Coalition fatalities. There are few signs that the fighting will diminish. The Taliban insurgents are already planning a spring offensive to match the one they mounted in 2007.
The Coalition has tried to restore political stability and democracy to Afghanistan, a nation riven by tribal factions that has not had any lasting peace since it was established as a monarchy in 1747. It was initially caught up in the expansionist strategies of Persia, Russia and Britain, and attempted its own expansions into India. Though a superficially "modern" constitution was briefly introduced in 1964 and democratic elections took place in 2005, one recent case highlights how "modern Afghanistan" is, at its core, essentially backwards, repressive and archaic.
On Tuesday January 22 last week, a 23-year old student of journalism was sentenced to death at a court in Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province, in the north of Afghanistan. A panel of three judges sentenced Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, of Balkh University for committing a "crime" that should have no place in a modern society. Kambaksh had breached Afghan law by "insulting Islam".
Kambaksh (also spelled Kaambakhsh) also worked as a journalist for the newspaper Jahan-e Naw ("The New World"). He had brought into his university class a page downloaded from an Iranian internet site. This was of an article that questioned why Muslim men can have four wives while women have no such rights.
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The court at which Kambaksh was tried was not open to the public, and the student was not allowed any defense lawyers. The "crime" took place last fall, and since his arrest by agents of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) on October 27, Kambaksh has been in jail. He is still in prison, while his appeals process continues. Under current conditions, there is little chance Kambaksh will be reprieved, unless President Hamid Karzai intervenes. He has to appeal to two courts, and the death penalty can not be enacted until ratified by a higher court.
The legal problems facing Kambaksh reflect problems with the national constitution. They also involve religion. The week before he appeared in court, religious clerics from Balkh and Kunduz provinces held a demonstration in Mazar-i-Sharif, urging the government not to release him. The Council of Mullahs called for Kambaksh's death.
There are also political issues which appear to indicate that Kambaksh is being used as pawn to place pressure on other journalists who have exposed corruption, including his older brother.
Afghanistan has had various constitutions since 1922. The first constitution was deemed too radically Western by religious leaders, and in 1931 the government of Nadir Khan replaced it with a constitution based on the Hanafi School of Sunni Islam. The constitution as it now stands is essentially an updated version of the one which was introduced in 1964. Moves to establish democracy based
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