What if a question cost you 20 years?

As someone fortunate enough to have studied here, I was encouraged to ask questions and debate viewpoints ad nauseum in University. At no point were my life or freedom threatened because I questioned what was being taught to me. In fact, I went on to build a career with my penchant for playing Devil's Advocate!

As an editor and columnist, I say what I have to say with as much honesty and clarity as I can muster on any given day and I have no qualms whatsoever about it. As George Orwell once said, "Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose."

I've developed thick skin over the years and learned to brush off the occasional nasty letter that comes my way. It's a luxury of sorts, I suppose, to know that my feelings, but not my life, are ever really in danger. Sure, the CDN-NDG borough may occasionally get annoyed at my editorials, but as far as I know Applebaum won't be issuing a Fatwa against me. At the same time, while there are ideas and thoughts that land in my inbox that I don't agree with even in the slightest, I would never think to squelch them. It's how we roll in a real democracy!

After the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, as President Karzai came to power, one of the most promising things he did was to declare freedom of the media. A Media Law was ratified, ensuring more freedom of the media under which individuals could run independent papers, publications, radios and TVs. Finally! A new day had dawned in Afghanistan! Too bad the whole thing was a complete sham.

At the exact same time as Karzai was highlighting freedom of the press in Afghanistan as one of his administration's greatest achievements, journalists were also being told they had no right to write or say anything that would be considered against "national interests" and/or "affronts Islam". Aaaaand we're back to Square One.

Here's a young journalism student being sentenced to death (then prison) for daring to question, inquire, doubt – the very fundamentals of an education and a free press. Freedom of speech is what tyrants dread the most. Questioning is not permitted in tyrannical states. It is considered dangerous behaviour. Afghan citizens are being muzzled right now and forced to live in a state of constant terror because of religious zealots and whether or not we agree with Canadian forces being in Afghanistan, it's our moral responsibility as citizens of the world to stand up and say we won't tolerate this.

"Canada should ask Karzai why, as a country, it's spending millions and millions of dollars for democracy and justice and freedom when cases like this happen," stated Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, Kambakhsh's brother and himself a working journalist. This statement is made all the more poignant when one considers the danger inherent in making it at all.