An Afghan Cleric Got 20 Years for Rape in a Landmark Judgment

A Muslim cleric has been sentenced in a Kabul court to 20 years in prison for raping a young girl in his mosque.

The trial was widely hailed on Saturday as a significant milepost in the fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan, for the fact that the 10-year-old victim was not held responsible for the rape, as is still common in such cases, CNN reports.

The saga began when rights group Women for Afghan Women intervened in the case to shelter the victim and protect her from family members who were overheard contemplating murdering her, in a so-called “honor killing.” The victim has since been returned to her family, who have made promises not to harm her and who attended the proceedings.

It ended with the child confronting her attacker, Mullah Mohammad Amin, in court, shaking, weeping, and saying: “You are a liar…you ruined my life…God will hate you for what you did to me, he will punish you.”

Amin’s lawyers had contended that the victim was 17-years-old and that the sex was consensual, making him culpable not of rape but the lesser crime of adultery — a charge that would make the girl also eligible for punishment. Medical evidence disputed the cleric’s Sharia Law defense.

Amin received a sentence consistent with the 2009 Elimination of Violence Against Women law, which for the first time made rape a crime in Afghanistan.

[CNN]