Afghanistan abuse of women

Kabul (CNN) -- The ordeal of Gulnaz did not simply begin and end with the physical attack of her rape. The rape began a years-long nightmare of further pain, culminating in an awful choice she must now make.
Even two years later, Gulnaz remembers the smell and state of her rapist's clothes when he came into the house when her mother left for a brief visit to the hospital.
"He had filthy clothes on as he does metal and construction work. When my mother went out, he came into my house and he closed doors and windows. I started screaming, but he shut me up by putting his hands on my mouth," she said.
The rapist was her cousin's husband.
After the attack, she hid what happened as long as she could. But soon she began vomiting in the mornings and showing signs of pregnancy. It was her attacker's child.
In Afghanistan, this brought her not sympathy, but prosecution. Aged just 19, she was found guilty by the courts of sex outside of marriage -- adultery -- and sentenced to twelve years in jail.
Now inside Kabul's Badam Bagh jail, she and her child are serving her sentence together.
I started screaming, but he shut me up by putting his hands on my mouth
Gulnaz
Sitting with the baby in her lap, her face carefully covered, she explains the only choice she has that would end her incarceration.
The only way around the dishonor of rape, or adultery in the eyes of Afghans, is to marry her attacker. This will, in the eyes of some, give her child a family and restore her honor.
Incredibly, this is something that Gulnaz is willing to do.
"I was asked if I wanted to start a new life by getting released, by marrying this man", she told CNN in an exclusive interview. "My answer was that one man dishonored me, and I want to stay with that man."
Tending to her daughter in the jail's cold, she added: "My daughter is a little innocent child. Who knew I would have a child in this way. A lot of people told me that after your daughter's born give it to someone else, but my aunt told me to keep her as proof of my innocence."
Gulnaz's choice is stark. Women in her situation are often killed for the shame their ordeal has brought the community. She is at risk, some say, from her attacker's family.
We found Gulnaz's convicted rapist in a jail across town. While he denied raping her, he agreed that she would likely be killed if she gets out of jail. But he insists that it will be her family, not his, that will kill her, "out of shame."
Whether threatened by his family or hers, for now, jail may be the safest place for her.
Shockingly, Gulnaz's case is common in Afghanistan.
CNN asked a spokesman for the prosecutor to comment on the case. The reply was that there were hundreds such cases and the office would need time to look into it.
I was asked if I wanted to start a new life by getting released, by marrying this man
Gulnaz
But Gulnaz's plight has found international attention because of a dispute between the European Union and a team of documentary makers hired to report on women's rights in Afghanistan.
The documentary makers filmed a lengthy report on Gulnaz and other women, showing her talking openly about her fate. They showed the film to the EU, who were paying for it as part of a project on female rights here. After viewing it, the EU decided to spike the project.
The EU said it was concerned about the safety of the women in the film: they could be identified and might face reprisals. The filmmakers however suspect -- citing an email leaked from the EU delegation -- that the EU might also be motivated by its sensitive relationship with Afghan justice institutions, since he film shows the Afghan justice system in a very unflattering light.
The leaked email says: "The delegation also has to consider its relations with [Afghan] Justice institutions in connection with the other work that it is doing in the sector."
The EU Ambassador to Afghanistan, Vygaudas Usackas, rejected any political motivation in asking for the film not to be shown.
"What I am concerned about is that situation of the women. About the security and well being, that's of paramount importance, the key criteria according to which I, as representative of the European Union will judge," said the ambassdor.
Under Afghan law, Gulnaz has been judged an adulterer. Despite the ongoing dispute over her story, her predicament has not changed. She faces the hideous choice of 12 years in jail or marriage to her rapist and risk death. It's a marriage she says she'll accept, so her child can continue to have a mother.

President Obama to speak to black congressional caucus

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CNN's Athena Jones

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The economic slowdown has hit the black community particularly hard, pushing the unemployment rate among blacks up to 16.7% in August, nearly double the national average. The problem is the Congressional Black Caucus' chief concern and one many members have pushed the White House to do a better job of addressing.

As President Barack Obama prepares to speak at Saturday night's 2011 Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Phoenix Awards Dinner, he is likely to tout some of the proposals in the American Jobs Act he introduced this month. Several are aimed at tackling the problem of long-term unemployment, steps that could provide much-needed aid to the community where the jobless rate is highest.

One CBC member who has been especially critical of the president in recent months is Rep. Maxine Waters, a Democrat who represents California's 35th congressional district. At a CBC jobs tour town hall in Detroit in August, she said black unemployment was "unconscionable," the strategy to fix it was unclear and that the caucus was "getting tired" of waiting for one.

Earlier this month, she questioned the president's decision to focus on the Midwest during a three-day jobs bus tour in August, saying the 3 million population of Iowa, an electorally important state that is also mostly white, is roughly equal to the number of African Americans who are out of work and suggesting that the population of that key state seemed more important to the administration than the black community.

"Are the unemployed in the African-American community, including almost 45% of its youth, as important as the people of Iowa?" she asked in the statement she released ahead of the president's speech before a joint session of Congress in which he announced his jobs plan.

The White House is well aware of this criticism from some in the black community and has made a point of trying to address it.

"The president shares the frustration of African Americans and all Americans about the pace of the economy," said Kevin Lewis, the White House director of African-American media. "Though the president is committed to improving the economy for all Americans, he'll note in tonight's speech that the American Jobs Act includes targetd initiatives and programs that protect, support and provide economic stability for the most vulnerable Americans.  He'll continue to urge Americans to urge Congress to act in a bipartisan fashion and pass the bill."

The president has proposed a $4,000 tax credit to employers for hiring long-term unemployed workers and higher credits to companies that hire veterans who have been unemployed for at least six months. He also wants to see unemployment insurance extended to prevent 5 million Americans from losing their benefits and stronger programs to help the long-term unemployed through counseling and job training.

A number of CBC members - including Missouri Democrat and CBC Chairman Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and Democratic representatives like John Lewis of Georgia and Frederica Wilson of Florida - released statements of support for the American Jobs Act after the president's speech, as did other black leaders like Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

Waters also praised the plan in television interviews after the speech, though she said she and other CBC members wished the plan was "even bigger" and that she hoped the kind of help proposed would get to the people who need it most.

More than anything, CBC members want to see the president fight hard for the jobs plan and not give in to any demands to weaken it. Members' staffers have spoken of concerns that the White House did not negotiate from a position of strength with past bills, such as the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul or the health care overhaul, and say they hope the president has learned a lesson from those experiences.

While some African-American critics of the president have argued he has not done enough to listen to the concerns of the black community, his recent schedule shows he has spent time meeting with black journalists and with the leaders of organizations that serve the community like the NAACP's Ben Jealous, the National Urban League's Marc Morial and the Rev. Al Sharpton from the National Action Network.

At a panel this month with black media group Interactive One, one of the president's top advisers, Valerie Jarrett, called the unemployment rate in the black community "unacceptably high" and said the president understood that "inaction is not an option." In remarks to the panel, the president said 20 million African-American workers would benefit from the jobs bill proposal to cut the payroll tax in half, a measure he said would save the average family $1,500 a year.

"It helps out-of-work Americans, including the 1.4 (million) African-American folks and their families who are out of work by extending unemployment benefits to help support them and their families while they're looking for work," the president said. "And it also reforms the training programs that are available so that they can build real skills and connect to jobs. And that will particularly help the long-term unemployed."

The president also taped an interview with BET Networks, set to air Monday, in which he is expected to specifically address the "increase of unemployment among African-Americans since taking office, the current economic crisis, the political landscape around the 2012 presidential election" among other issues, according to the network.