Abdul Rahman (convert)

Abdul Rahman (Dari: عبدالرحمن; born 1965) is an Afghan man whose arrest and trial in February 2006 sparked widespread controversy among the international community. Rahman had been arrested by Afghan authorities for apostasy and subsequently threatened with the death penalty. He had converted to Christianity from Islam while providing medical assistance to Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan. On 26 March 2006, under heavy pressure from foreign governments, the Afghan court returned his case to prosecutors, citing "investigative gaps";^[1] Rahman was released from prison and remanded to his family on the night of 27 March.^[2] On 29 March, Abdul Rahman arrived in Italy after being offered asylum by the Italian government.^[3] Representatives within the Afghan government and many Afghan citizens continued to call for Rahman's execution, and his wife divorced him shortly after his conversion, leading to an unsuccessful custody battle for their two children.

The case became a cause célèbre internationally, and particularly throughout the Western world. Harsh condemnation came from the United States and the United Kingdom, both of which were the world's leading donors of international aid to Afghanistan at the time.^[4] The Afghan government's integrity was called into question, as it had recently been established under the aegis of the War in Afghanistan, shortly after an American-led military coalition overthrew the country's Taliban government.