Taliban attributes taking hold with Afghan government

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Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl...karzai-afghanistan-law

Excerpts:

Hamid Karzai has been accused of trying to win votes in Afghanistan's presidential election by backing a law the UN says legalises rape within marriage and bans wives from stepping outside their homes without their husbands' permission.

The Afghan president signed the law earlier this month, despite condemnation by human rights activists and some MPs that it flouts the constitution's equal rights provisions.

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The final document has not been published, but the law is believed to contain articles that rule women cannot leave the house without their husbands' permission, that they can only seek work, education or visit the doctor with their husbands' permission, and that they cannot refuse their husband sex.

A briefing document prepared by the United Nations Development Fund for Women also warns that the law grants custody of children to fathers and grandfathers only.

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Senator Humaira Namati, a member of the upper house of the Afghan parliament, said the law was "worse than during the Taliban". "Anyone who spoke out was accused of being against Islam," she said.

The Afghan constitution allows for Shias, who are thought to represent about 10% of the population, to have a separate family law based on traditional Shia jurisprudence. But the constitution and various international treaties signed by Afghanistan guarantee equal rights for women.

Shinkai Zahine Karokhail, like other female parliamentarians, complained that after an initial deal the law was passed with unprecedented speed and limited debate. "They wanted to pass it almost like a secret negotiation," she said. "There were lots of things that we wanted to change, but they didn't want to discuss it because Karzai wants to please the Shia before the election."

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The international community has so far shied away from publicly questioning such a politically sensitive issue.

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Soraya Sobhrang, the head of women's affairs at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said western silence had been "disastrous for women's rights in Afghanistan".

"What the international community has done is really shameful. If they had got more involved in the process when it was discussed in parliament we could have stopped it. Because of the election I am not sure we can change it now. It's too late for that."

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Karzai's spokesman declined to comment on the new law.

In trying to preserve Karzai and his government, we are implicitly supporting these barbaric human rights violations. Yet again, another reason why our troops should be on their way back home rather than on their way to this hellhole.

 

[Lemon law]

Yes, I agree firewall, such a law stinks.

Unfortunately, Karzai is such a weak president, that he pees his pants over alienating anyone. But in the longer view, Karzai is hardly even mayor of Kabul, he spend most of his time abroad begging for funds, and is somewhat meaningless in the bulk of Afghan

And while this law goes at the heart of Western Propaganda's allegation we are in Afghanistan to fight for woman's rights, it somewhat misses all the other areas where the Karzai government alienates its own people. The police and army are totally corrupt, the biggest drug lords either are the Provencal Governors or have them under their thumbs, the court system does not function without bribes, but its democracy in action or so Nato pretends. As Nato, like Karzai has done nothing to change the corrupt system for basically seven years.

And now we wonder why the Taliban is coming back?

 

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Originally posted by: Lemon law
And now we wonder why the Taliban is coming back?

Interesting question. From what is being reported, the sole point of focus seems to be on the Eastern Afghani border. It might be that the Taliban are planning to take the few major Afghani cities under NATO/US control back.

 

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Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl...ns-rights-hamid-karzai

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Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, came under intense western pressure yesterday to scrap a new law that the UN said legalised rape within marriage and severely limited the rights of women.

At a conference on Afghanistan in The Hague, Scandinavian foreign ministers publicly challenged the Afghan leader to respond to a report on the new law in yesterday's Guardian, and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, was reported to have confronted Karzai on the issue in a private meeting.

At a press conference after the meeting, Clinton made clear US displeasure at the apparent backsliding on women's rights. "This is an area of absolute concern for the United States. My message is very clear. Women's rights are a central part of the foreign policy of the Obama administration," she said.

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No response from Karzai yet.