Freedom on the march in Afghanistan:

For the first time since the fall of the Taliban's Islamic government four years ago, a journalist has been convicted by a Kabul court under the country's blasphemy laws.

Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, the editor of a monthly magazine for women called Women's Rights, was sentenced Saturday to two years in prison by the primary court in Kabul.

...the court had bypassed a commission that was supposed to make recommendations in cases involving the news media and that the commission had found no blasphemy after examining the articles....

Could have been worse, I guess -- the prosecutor asked for the death penalty.

Perhaps the courts are following the election returns:

More than a month after the elections, nearly all provisional results have finally been released for Afghanistan's Parliament and provincial assemblies, cementing a victory for Islamic conservatives and the jihad fighters involved in the wars of the past two decades.

At least half of the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of Parliament, will be made up of religious figures or former fighters, including four former Taliban commanders....

And you may also have seen this last week:

A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two giant 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign has been elected to parliament, election organisers said yesterday as results from two provinces were finalised.

Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province where the Taliban destroyed the statues in 2001...

On September 18, he stood as an election candidate in Samangan province and won.

(Last link via Sisyphus Shrugged.)