Quick hit: women’s rights in Afghanistan under threat

Not that that’s news, particularly.

Anyway, if this is true, it’s pretty awful: Karzai has reportedly signed a law that rolls back women’s rights.

Apparently, the law has not yet been published, but it is understood to contain (among other things) provisions that legalise rape within marriage and provisions that prevent women from leaving their home without their husband’s permission. One female MP, Senator Humaira Namati,

said the law was “worse than during the Taliban”. “Anyone who spoke out was accused of being against Islam,” she said.

(From the context, I take it she means that anyone who spoke out during the debates.)

It is reported that Karzai has signed the law in order to keep Shia and Hazara minorities happy. The article quotes a male Hazara MP, Ustad Mohammad Akbari:

But he said the law actually protected women’s rights.

“Men and women have equal rights under Islam but there are differences in the way men and women are created. Men are stronger and women are a little bit weaker; even in the west you do not see women working as firefighters.”

Akbari said the law gave a woman the right to refuse sexual intercourse with her husband if she was unwell or had another reasonable “excuse”. And he said a woman would not be obliged to remain in her house if an emergency forced her to leave without permission.

Oh, how kind of you to give women a get-out-of-rape-free clause if they’re sick. And how kind of you to let a woman leave her house if it’s, say, burning down. How very fucking protective of women’s rights. Mate, this is not equality by any stretch of the imagination.

It gets better (as in worse). The article also refers to the views of female MPs:

Some female politicians have taken a more pragmatic stance, saying their fight in parliament’s lower house succeeded in improving the law, including raising the original proposed marriage age of girls from nine to 16 and removing completely provisions for temporary marriages.

“It’s not really 100% perfect, but compared to the earlier drafts it’s a huge improvement,” said Shukria Barakzai, an MP. “Before this was passed family issues were decided by customary law, so this is a big improvement.”

Not 100% perfect? Bit of an understatement, I’d say.

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