{"id":8527,"date":"2009-08-18T12:12:50","date_gmt":"2009-08-18T19:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=8527"},"modified":"2009-08-18T12:12:50","modified_gmt":"2009-08-18T19:12:50","slug":"afghanistan-gives-husbands-legal-right-to-starve-wives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=8527","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan passes brutally misogynistic law, taking away women's rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Top photo: Afghan women protest an earlier version of this law, in April 2009, from the <\/em>New York Times. Second photo, also from April: Hazara <\/a>women in Europe protest the Afghan law. From Hazaritan Times<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

From Human Rights Watch<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Karzai has made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in return for the support of fundamentalists in the August 20 election,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “So much for any credentials he claimed as a moderate on women’s issues.” […]<\/p>\n

The law gives a husband the right to withdraw basic maintenance from his wife, including food, if she refuses to obey his sexual demands. It grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers. It 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. […]<\/p>\n

The law regulates the personal affairs of Shia Muslims – who make up between 10 and 20 percent of the population – including divorce, separation, inheritance, and the minimum age for marriage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amazingly, the earlier version of the law was even harsher<\/em> on Shia women’s rights, and was softened in response to internal protests<\/a> and international pressure (including protests by Hazaras women<\/a> of many nations):<\/p>\n

The initial version of the law included articles that imposed drastic restrictions on Shia women, including a requirement to ask permission to leave the house except on urgent business, and a requirement that a wife have sex with her husband at least once every four days. […]<\/p>\n

In a rare move, Afghan women took to the streets in April to protest, braving threats and violence. President Barack Obama of the United States, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom, the NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and many other world leaders condemned the legislation. As a result of pressure, Karzai submitted the law to a consultation process with civil society groups in May, which resulted in some improvements. The legislation still contains some of its most repressive measures, though.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Remember back when we first invaded Afghanistan, when hawks were criticizing feminists for not favoring a war that was, we were told, going to free the women of Afghanistan from misogynistic oppression?<\/p>\n

I’m genuinely sorry the hawks were wrong — but not surprised. The problem with hawks in the US is that they think of the US army as a magic wishing lamp, which can be waved at any problem to produce good results. But the truth is, you can’t invade <\/em>a culture into accepting women’s rights, or — I suspect — into genuine democracy.<\/p>\n

I’m also genuinely amazed at the enormous courage of women in Afghanistan who took to the streets to protest in April. I hope that if there are further protests, in Afghanistan or elsewhere, we’ll hear about in the US.<\/p>\n

See also: The Czech<\/a>, Tennessee Guerrilla Women<\/a>, Gullibility is Bad for You<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top photo: Afghan women protest an earlier version of this law, in April 2009, from the New York Times. Second photo, also from April: Hazara women in Europe protest the Afghan law. From Hazaritan Times. From Human Rights Watch: “Karzai … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-feminism-sexism-etc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}