AN AFGHAN WOMAN jailed for having sex out of wedlock after she was raped by a relative has been pardoned by President Hamid Karzai.
The president’s office confirmed today that the woman, identified as Gulnaz, had agreed to marry her attacker. She had previously refused a court’s offers of release from her 12-year sentence if she agreed to the marriage.
Around 5,000 people had signed a petition calling for her release.
According to Karzai’s office, the president agreed to provide the pardon after speaking with judicial officials. An official says that the marriage was not a condition of her release.
The AFP reports that Gulnaz has served two years of her sentence and that she bore a child after the assault whom she has been raising while detained.
A spokesman for Karzia’s office told the AFP that Gulnaz agreed to the marriage on the condition that the man’s sister marries her brother, in order to guard against Gulnaz being attacked by the man after their wedding.
- Additional reporting by the AP
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