UPDATE - Petition: Afghan man sentenced to death for downloading an article about Islam and the treatment of women

UPDATE: Apparently there's an ulterior motive in having Sayed arrested and perhaps a reason to be optimistic about his fate as well according to NPR

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See the link for a synopsis of the case and a petition you can sign. It's hard to know if public disapproval can sway foreign officials, but it's worth a try when someone's life hangs in the balance.

The document he allegedly downloaded was from Iran and about Islamic thought. Makes you wonder what they would do to people who read Western secular documents.

When a country's belief system is so shaky that authorities have to kill or imprison people for thinking outside the book, its days are numbered. Suppression leads directly to keen interest in forbidden ideas. Let's hope 23-year-old Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh and the brave women of Afghanistan survive this shameful period of their country's history, and that it passes quickly into the books itself.