From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Faisal Ahmad Shinwari (alternatively
Fazl Hadi Shinwari) is a citizen of Afghanistan, from Jalalabad, and an early
appointee in Hamid
Karzai's administration.[1][2][3]
He was appointed the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of Afghanistan from 2001 until 2006. He was appointed to
the post by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in accordance with the Afghan Constitution
approved after the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government.
Shinwari is a member of the Ittehad-al-Islami
party.[4]
In 2003 Shinwari spoke out against co-education—the education of
boys and girls in shared facilities—while clarifying that he did
not object to the education of girls and women in principle, just
not in facilities shared with men and boys.[5]
Shinwari also lead the Supreme Court's efforts to ban Cable
TV.[3]
According to Eurasianet Shinwari was responsible for
re-instating the ministry formerly known as the "Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and
Prevention of Vice".[3]
-
- In theory, that could play into conservatives’ hands. Even
though he has repeatedly distanced himself from the Taliban’s interpretation of
Islam, Chief Justice Shinwari is an outspoken advocate of
orthodoxy. With a background in religious matters only, Shinwari is
seen as sympathetic to the pro-Wahhabist views of Abdul Rasul
Sayyaf, a former mujaheddin commander and onetime associate
of Osama bin
Laden. Shinwari’s tenure as Chief Justice drew particular
notice in 2003, when he reinstated the hated Ministry for the
Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, renamed as the Ministry for Haj and Religious
Affairs.
|
On December 8, 2004 Shinwari administered the oath of office to
Hamid Karzai when
he was elected President of Afghanistan.[6]
Shinwari addressed the 17 Afghan who had been held in
Guantanamo whose Combatant Status Review
Tribunals determined they had never been "enemy
combatants" after all.[1][2]
Their Tribunals had been held between August 2, 2004 and late
January 2005. Carlotta Gall of the New York Times reported that the Chief
Justice encouraged the men to regard their detention as something
sent from God. The reports stated that the Chief Justice warned the
cleared men that a candid description of their detention could
damage the chances of other Afghan captives to be released.
-
- "Don't tell these people the stories of your time in prison
because the government is trying to secure the release of others,
and it may harm the release of your friends."
|
Shinwari is also reported to have distinguished between three
categories of Guantanamo captives.[1][2]:
-
- "There are three kinds of prisoners in Guantanamo. There are
those that have committed crimes and should be there, then there
are people who were falsely denounced, and third there are those
who are there because of the mistakes of the Americans."
|
In 2006, President Karzai renominated Shinwari to the position
of Chief Justice, despite constitutional concerns regarding his
degree in Islamic law.[4]
However, the parliament rejected
the nomination. Shinwari served as Chief Justice until a new
candidate, Abdul Salam Azimi, was approved by
parliament.
By Western standards, he was widely considered to be a very
conservative Islamist, and in his short term as chief
justice some of the court's rulings included:
- the court, during the 2004 presidential
election campaign, sought to ban a candidate who questioned
whether polygamy was in
keeping with the spirit of Islam;
- they have called for an end to cable television service in the
country, at least pending government regulation, due in part to the
apparent influence of films from Bollywood, which were allegedly prurient [1];
- the court upheld the death penalty for two
journalists convicted of blasphemy for saying the Islam being
practised in the country was reactionary;
- they banned women from singing on television [2];[7]
and
- they ruled that a girl, given as a bride when 9 years old and
now 13, could not get a divorce from her abusive husband.[8
]
According to the International Crisis Group
Shinwari appointed 128 judges, in addition to the original nine,
and that of the credentials of 36 judges they were able to examine,
none of the new judges had a degree in secular law[4]:
-
- "Shinwari’s actions, together with the re-emergence of a
ministry to promote Islamic virtue, have added to fears that the
judicial system has been taken over by hard-liners before the
Afghan people have had a chance to express their will in a
democratic process."
|
Saudi peace
talks
During Ramadan, 2008, there were rumors that Saudi King Abdullah was
attempting to broker peace talks between the warring parties from
Afghanistan.[9]
Former Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad
Mutawakil former Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salem Zaeef and Shinwari were among
leading Afghan figures who met with King Abdullah.
Zaeef acknowledged being invited by King Abdullah to dine with
other leading Afghan figures, from the Karzai government, the
Taliban, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami and other former
members of the Taliban.[9]
Zaeef denied this meeting should be characterized as "peace talks".
He stated that none of the individuals at this meeting had been
authorized to conduct negotiations. Zaeef denied anyone discussed
Afghanistan at this meeting.
References
- ^ a
b
c
"17 Afghans, Turk home from
Guantanamo Bay". China Daily. April 20, 2005. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/20/content_435839.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
"Pentagon spokesman Maj. Michael Shavers said the 17 Afghans
and the Turkish man had been cleared of accusations
they were enemy combatants during the Combatant Status Review
Tribunal process that recently ended. Five others cleared in late
March already had been sent home and another 15 await transfers
home."
mirror
- ^ a
b
c
Carlotta Gall (April 20 2005). "17 Afghans Freed From
Guantánamo Prison". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/20/international/asia/20afghan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2008-04-18. "In a
brief ceremony, Chief Justice Fazil Hadi Shinwari told the 17 men
that they were free to return home and he tried to reconcile them
to the idea their imprisonment was something sent from God. Some
prisoners in Guantánamo were guilty and deserved to be imprisoned,
he said, but others were innocent victims of false accusations or
military mistakes, or were duped into supporting
terrorism."
mirror
- ^ a
b
c
Claudio Franco (2004-12-07). "Despite Karzai election,
Afghan conservatives soldier on". Eurasianet. http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav120704.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-04. "A ban
on cable TV, reinstated on November 12, illustrates the stakes
involved. The original ban, first imposed by the Supreme Court in
January 2003, was revoked in April 2003 after a government
commission investigated claims of obscenity filed in Kabul and the
eastern city of Jalalabad, the hometown of Chief Justice Fazl Hadi
Shinwari. Although execution of the ban was eventually eased,
restrictions on most western and Indian television shows remain
firmly in place."
mirror
- ^ a
b
c
"Division between Islamists,
Moderates hamper effort on new constitution". Eurasianet.
2003-02-01. http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/pp020103a.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-04. "The
ICG [International Crisis Group] says rebuilding the justice system
needs to be raised higher on Afghanistan’s political agenda. It
also is recommending the retirement of the current Afghan Supreme
Court chief, Mawlavi Fazl Hadi Shinwari, on grounds that he does
not meet the legal requirements on age and education."
- ^
"Fazl Hadi Shinwari,
Afghanistan's new chief justice, has banned cable television -
Brickbats - Brief Article". Reason magazine.
May 2003. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_1_35/ai_99933023?tag=artBody;col1. Retrieved 2008-08-04. ""I
want education for women," he said, "but we want men and women not
to sit together.""
mirror
- ^ "Hamid Karzai is inaugurated
as Afghan president". Taipei Times. 2004-12-08. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2004/12/08/2003214201. Retrieved 2008-08-04. "After
the Afghan national anthem reverberated around a restored hall of
the war-damaged former royal palace, Karzai repeated the oath of
allegiance read to him by Afghanistan's white-bearded chief
justice, Fazl Hadi Shinwari."
mirror
- ^
"Afghan Supreme Court Upholds Media Ban
on Women".
- ^
Sudarsan Raghavan (2004-11-14). "Afghan girl, given as bride
at 9, fights for divorce". Arizona Daily Star. http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/attack/48031.php. Retrieved
2008-10-28.
mirror
- ^ a
b
"Taliban and Afghan officials
break bread". The Age.
2008-10-07. http://news.theage.com.au/world/taliban-and-afghan-officials-break-bread-20081007-4v9j.html. Retrieved
2008-10-06.
mirror
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