Afghan Women Protest Marriage Law

From yesterday’s New York Times:

“About 300 Afghan women, facing an angry throng three times larger than their own, walked the streets of the capital on Wednesday to demand that Parliament repeal a new law that introduces a range of Taliban-like restrictions on women, and permits, among other things, marital rape.”

These women deserve enormous kudos for braving the insults (“Whore!” “Dog!”) and rocks hurled at them from crowds of angry men (and women).

And they have almost certainly put their lives at risk. One prominent women’s rights activist was shot dead last week after receiving death threats.

This law directly contradicts the Afghan constitution which states that men and women have “equal rights and duties before the law.” International outrage led President Karzai to order a review of the law, though rights groups are concerned that the review will not be independent, because those leading the revision process are conservatives Shiites.

According to one conservative Shiite, women who protest against rape are merely ignorant of Islamic law:

“Afterward, when the demonstrators had left, one of the madrassa’s senior clerics walked outside. Asked about the dispute, he said it was between professionals and nonprofessionals; that is, between the clerics, who understood the Koran and Islamic law, and the women calling for the law’s repeal who did not.

“It’s like if you are sick, you go to a doctor, not some amateur,” said the cleric, Mohammed Hussein Jafaari. “This law was approved by the scholars. It was passed by both houses of Parliament. It was signed by the president.

The religious scholars, Mr. Jafaari conceded, were all men.”

Men who trade women’s rights for votes.