'legalizes rape'

Afghan women pray for justice and security of the country. Associated Press Writer – 3 mins ago
KABUL – A new Afghan law makes it legal for men to rape their wives, human rights groups and some Afghan lawmakers said Thursday, accusing President Hamid Karzai of signing the legislation to bolster his re-election prospects. Critics worry the legislation undermines hard-won rights for women enacted after the fall of the Taliban's strict Islamist regime.

The law — which some lawmakers say was never debated in parliament — is intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan's Shiite community, which makes up about 20 percent of this country of 30 million people. The law does not affect Afghan Sunnis.

One of the most controversial articles stipulates the wife "is bound to preen for her husband as and when he desires."

"As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night," Article 132 of the law says. "Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband."

One provision also appears to protect the woman's right to sex inside marriage saying the "man should not avoid having sexual relations with his wife longer than once every four months."

The law's critics say Karzai signed the legislation in the past month only for political gains several months before the country's presidential election.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women, or UNIFEM, said the law "legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband." "The law violates women's rights and human rights in numerous ways," a UNIFEM statement said.

The U.S. is "very concerned" about the law, said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. "We urge President Karzai to review the law's legal status to correct provisions of the law that limit or restrict women's rights."

Wood added that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had met with female Afghan lawmakers in The Hague and had assured them that "women's rights are going to be paramount in this administration's foreign policy, not an afterthought."

Canada's Defense Minister Peter MacKay said he will use this week's NATO summit to put "direct" pressure on his Afghan counterparts to abandon the legislation.

The issue of women's rights is a continuous source of tension between the country's conservative establishment and more liberal members of society. The Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 banned women from appearing in public without a body-covering burqa and a male escort from her family.

Much has improved since then. Millions of girls now attend school and many women own businesses. Of 351 parliamentarians, 89 are women.

But in this staunchly conservative country, critics fear those gains could easily be reversed.

Fawzia Kufi, a lawmaker who opposed the legislation, said several of its articles undermine constitutional and human rights of women as equals and take the country backward.

"All the efforts that were made in the last seven years to enhance women's rights will be undermined," Kufi said.

Karzai has not commented on the law. A spokesman, Waheed Omar, said the president is "aware of the discussion surrounding the law, and is looking into the matter."

Brad Adams, the Asia director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the law is a "dramatic setback for women's rights."

"It directly contradicts the freedoms enshrined in the Afghan constitution and the international conventions that Afghanistan has signed up to that guarantee the rights of women," Adams said.

Safia Sidiqi, a lawmaker from Nangarhar province who condemned the legislation, said she cannot remember parliament debating or even voting on the law and she does not know how it came to be signed by Karzai. She called for the law to be recalled to parliament for debate.

"It is impossible in a two-month session for parliament to pass a law more than 200 pages long," she said of the 263-page law.

Sayed Hossain Alemi Balkhi, a Shiite lawmaker involved in drafting it, defended the legislation saying it gives more rights to women than even Britain or the United States does. He said the law makes women safer and ensures the husband is obliged to provide for her.

As Karzai seeks re-election later this year, he is courting voters in the Shiite community, Kufi said. Women voters are presumed to vote as their husbands do.

"Women's basic freedoms are being sacrificed for the political and electoral gain of a few parliamentarians," Human Rights Watch's Adams said.

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Kat

Gives them more rights than women even in Britain and the US? Is he serious? What am I missing?

I am surely surprised that no more have come in and said something. The women especially.

This is so very sad and unthinkable for me. Rape legal!?? By anyone? That is in-humane.

Kat

Any woman can turn around any time after any consensual sex and claim that she did not consent, therefore alleging that she was raped.

There is an easy solution to this little problem: Do not surrender the judgment to the state by marrying on a state license.

That makes no sense to me. Medical tests can and do prove rape. It bruises a woman that doesn't agree.

Sad thing is; some women have said uch things. But we are talking about a country that states it is legal to make a woman have sex with him if she does not want too.

Kat

Well what is the purpose of having a wife then? :)

Bruises... How about women that like it hard? They get bruises! Then, if they are allowed, to accuse of a marital rape, such women will have a way of setting their husbands up for a crime.

Just don't marry someone you wouldn't want to be raped by.

Or, do not marry at all. That way, you can accuse your partner of rape anywhere, even in Afghanistan.

If I'm correct, they adhere to Sharia Law.
They are just reinforcing what has been fundamental and according to Mohammed.
According to Sharia, women are considered the same as cattle, property of the husband.
I can look it up if you wish.

So the victims are at fault??? What are you implying here?

Only men who hate women will make the assumption that women are at fault at any level in a rape case.

The first sentence of your response is sick, in my opinion. How can a man believe that just because she is his wife he has cart blanc sexually?

Then after that it just gets sicker and sicker.

I feel sorry for any woman who chooses you for a mate

It really pisses me off that every time rape is brought up there is always someone there to try to say that women fake it or in some way deserve it.

I would be willing to say that a small, small percentage could be women trying to manipulate but in most cases they are unable to prove their case..

Do people even realize how many rapes go unpunished? Do people even realize how many women just take it and try to go on with their lives after the trauma? Most rapes and molestation go unreported and unprosecuted. Do you know why? Because rape victims remember how people talk of rape victims as wrong, decietful, promiscuous, deserving of the crime, etc... Proving it is very hard and usually the victims are more victimized by the court process.

I am really pissed now.

I am like you honey. Shocked at what I read from him.

Thing is; these things had changed...now this guy wants to renew it once again into law. Women are not play things. Now are they animals. Wonder why you keep bringing up marriage? And being so angry over a very few women that may have done this. What is your problem? I wonder why you are so angry with women?

Kat

The topic refers to another culture and understanding their way of life. Mohammed commands the wife gives herself to the husband without question.
To get the sunni vote, the good politician is just reinforcing a promise that's already the Law.

The Place of Women in Pure Islam
by M. Rafiqul-Haqq and P. Newton
Chpt 4, Husband's Rights

1. MAN MAY BEAT AND SEXUALLY DESERT HIS WIFE

The Qur'an describes the natural relationship between the husband and the wife as one of love and mercy : "He has set between you love (mawaddah) and mercy." Q 30:21. A contemporary scholar, Sayyed Qotb sees that the love and the mercy spoken of in this verse as the natural feelings the man has for the opposite sex that was planted by the creator. Earlier scholars saw that "love" between the husband and the wife in the above verse refers to the sexual act, while "mercy" refers to the offspring of the man and his wife.[51] The important thing to note is that this love and mercy is not found in the man apart from the woman, but it is a mutual thing found in both. And the Qur'an commands men to "Consort with them (women) in kindness (ma'ruf)." Q 4:19 According to the Dictionary of Qur'anic terms and concepts the word "ma'ruf" means "customary law; enjoining good and forbidding evil."[52]

Elsewhere the word is translated many times as equitable as in Usif Ali's English translation of the Qur'an53 In other words when women behave properly they are to be treated kindly, the treatment must be equitable according to the customary laws.

There is also a Hadith that describes the good husband; "The best of you are those who are the best to their wives."[54] (that Hadith is mentioned only by Tirmizi). But how far this goodness will go in difficult times, when the wife does not behave properly?

The man according to the Qur'an has the responsibility to admonish his wife, and the right to desert her sexually, and to beat her to correct any rebelliousness in her behaviour.

I am sorry Kat for sidelining your thread. I get really worked up over this because most of the crimes against women and children go unreported here in the states.

As for Afghan, this is an ongoing battle for the women in these countries, there is more than just this one. It is the religious laws of these lands that makes this possible. As long as religion has it's stronghold there they will have this battle unless possibly other countries boycott them for it or something.

Hell! This is just another way of a man tget what he wants when he wants it. Mohammed my ass. This was no more til this guy said so. He must have a hard time getting any.
It appalls me how ANY MAN could justify this..religion or no.

Another thing; you said "the good politician". THE GOOD POLITICIAN!?

To hell with it being another culture, these women do not want to be treated this way. What is wrong with you?

Kat

I didn't say I agree with it.
It's part of the Quran and Sharia Law.
That's how the Muslim have lived for thousands of years. The Sunni want to get back to basics.

those b*stards. we should send in our military and invade their country and...

oh

LOL, I imagine the UN also deals with this issue. It should be known that we do not approve of this but it is also an internal issue because of the religion involved.

To make a joke about something as ugly as this....is so wrong.

Thing is you guys seem to not read. It says that this law had been taken away after the Taliban. Now this sob wants to reinstate it. These women are speaking out against it. They have feelings...Nothing will ruin a woman faster sexually than HAVING to give it up. Then to be told it must be pleasing to the man!?? My gosh!!

Kat

It WILL be legalizing rape, even if that isn't what it sounds like the wording says.

Sounds like the wording says it is illegal to refuse for 4 days. It doesn't say that a husband then has the right to rape. More that the husband then has a right to press charges.

But the reality will be rape.

Believe it or no, in the last 6 months, parts of Europe have adopted Sharia Law and will no longer interfere in the domestic relations of the Muslim. That includes what is stated in the commandments of Allah and Mohammad.