The Afghan Marriage Law

Back in March a law was signed by U.S. puppet Hamid Karzai, the Afghanistan president that called on women to have sex with their husbands at least every four days. If she refused her spouse could withhold his financial, shelter, food, and even medical support as punishment. As expected considerable flack erupted from governments around the world to what critics viewed as legalizing marital rape. You think? Activists both inside the country and out called for this barbarian treatment to end, including the widespread violence against Afghan women and girls, which is condoned by law, and deeply imbedded in Afghan culture and customs.

The health and safety of Afghan women will be critical to the United States military operations, and key in stabilizing the country both politically and economically. Navy Times has an article ‘Women’s issues key to Afghanistan success,’ which talks about the work of Rep. Susan Davis, a California democratic, and member of the Congressional Women’s Caucus who has discussed protection of women with military commanders, and believes the health of women in Afghanistan is poor. She says “During a recent trip to Afghanistan, I learned that women in Afghanistan have the same aspirations of women everywhere – a focus on family, community and children.”

I believe Davis’ comments to be dead on. Theses are the aspirations of so many women worldwide. I also strongly believe one of the best things we can do to help Women in Afghanistan is to end the war, and get out of the country. We cannot approve the lives of anyone if that country has a corrupt government, and has a history of arming extremely violent and misogynistic fanatics. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be concerned with human rights, or the rights of women in other countries, only that “Westerners” must understand that much of Afghanistan’s criminality against women is probably due to decades of armed conflicts and a long history of rampant human-rights violations. What can be said of men that dispense brutality, and follow traditions that force women to such a subservient status? In addition cruelty against women whether its in Afghanistan or American, must be challenged, and there’s plenty of work in our country to be done. No, I’m not comparing the United States with Afghanistan, just that we often suffer form a superiority complex when it comes to analyzing another country’s problems, and it’s quite possible the war over the last eight years has caused more harm to women rights then good. Independent candidate for Afghan president Ramazan Bashardost puts it even more bluntly. He says “This is not a war for women’s rights in Afghanistan. It is not a war for human rights in Afghanistan. The problem is that the analysis of the Afghan situation by the US is wrong.”

Read more about the oppressive Afghan marriage law here –

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31832571