Karzai sells out women by passing new law ensuring women's obedience to husbands
Excerpted from The Guardian
Afghanistan passes 'barbaric' law diminishing women's rights
by Jon Boone, Kandahar, August 14, 2009
Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review. The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work. "It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying 'blood money' to a girl who was injured when he raped her," the US charity Human Rights Watch said ( . . . )
Islamic law experts and human rights activists say that although the language of the original law has been changed, many of the provisions that alarmed women's rights groups remain, including this one: "Tamkeen is the readiness of the wife to submit to her husband's reasonable sexual enjoyment, and her prohibition from going out of the house, except in extreme circumstances, without her husband's permission. If any of the above provisions are not followed by the wife she is considered disobedient." The law has been backed by the hardline Shia cleric Ayatollah Mohseni, who is thought to have influence over the voting intentions of some of the country's Shias, which make up around 20% of the population. Karzai has assiduously courted such minority leaders in the run up to next Thursday's election, which is likely to be a close run thing, according to a poll released yesterday ( . . . )
Human Rights Watch, which has obtained a copy of the final law, called on all candidates to pledge to repeal the law, which it says contradicts Afghanistan's own constitution. The group said that Karzai had "made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in the support of fundamentalists in the August 20 election" ( . . . )
"Dust has been thrown into the eyes of the world by your governments.
You have not been told the truth. The situation now is as catastrophic
as it was under the Taliban for women. Your governments have replaced
the fundamentalist rule of the Taliban with another fundamentalist
regime of warlords. (That is) what your soldiers are dying for." Malai Joya, Afghanistan
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/malalai-joya-the-woman-who-will-...
I just finished reading the long link from The Independent. Joya is incredible.
A few thoughts.
The use of the word "barbaric" in the thread title is offensive, racist, and given the source, colonial. Yes, that word was used in the headline of the Guardian artcle, and it was offensive there too. Even when put in scare quotes.
No question, what the government is doing, and will likely do, is appalling and anti-woman, and enacting hatred of women. No question.
How the West takes this up, though, is always interesting, albeit tiring, to observe.
As for the term "sells out women", I don't think that's accurate given that women in Afghanistan never looked at him as if he'd do anything different, according to Joya. He's playing to his base, and we all know what that looks like. The ordinary people who just want to live their lives are not represented at all.
I agree re: the term "barbaric". Martin asked me to fix the spelling error he made in the word, but I decided to just take it out entirely instead.
Coming soon to a country near us, me thinks.
Thanks, Martin, for posting the link to the Independent story on Joya. What an incredible women. I will keep this with me: "Tell me what you read and I shall tell you what you are."
Yes, I agree FM, and I wish I could have been in Quebec City in 2006, when the NDP had her speak at the convention.
Karzai's approval of ‘marital rape' law leads to international rift
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has approved a law that critics say condones rape within marriage
Jeremy Page, The Times (London)
Kabul - President Karzai has approved a law that critics say condones marital rape, opening a rift in the international community as it debates how best to respond without disrupting Thursday's presidential election.
The schism emerged when donor countries met to discuss the law after learning it had come into effect late in July despite condemnation of an earlier draft by Western leaders including President Obama and Gordon Brown. Canada and several European countries favour making a strong public protest over the Shia Personal Status Law which, among other things, permits Shia men to refuse to give food to their wives if they do not have sex with them.
But the United States and Britain are now opposed to any strong public protest because they fear that speaking out could disrupt Thursday's election, according to two sources familiar with the donors' meeting.
(...)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Mr Karzai of making an "unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out" in return for the support of fundamentalists. Brad Adams, its Asia director, said: "These kinds of barbaric laws were supposed to have been relegated to the past with the overthrow of the Taleban in 2001, yet Karzai has revived them and given them his official stamp of approval."
The new draft of the law grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work, according to HRW. It also in effect enables a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying ‘blood money', HRW says.
There are several different translations of the law being circulated. But the amended version is understood to have removed an article stipulating that a man has the right to demand sex from his wife, or wives, a certain number of times a week.
It is also believed to have changed the wording of the article that allows a man to deny his wife "maintenance" if she refuses his sexual demands. Instead, it says, he can refuse to maintain her if she does not perform her conjugal duties according to Sharia.(...)