Days after the international condemnation on Afghanistan’s new Shia Family Law, President Harmid Karzai ordered a review of the legislation. The Shia Family Law effectively allows marital rape and child marriage, a step back that is comparable to the Taliban regime. The law also grants men easier access to divorce and child custody.

The legislation had been pending until it re-emerged and passed in March. Critics describe the passage of the new Shia Family Law as tactical, Karzai’s means to obtain the support of fundamentalist warlords. Some members of the parliament are likewise counting on such support for their political survival.

As Shinkai Karokhail, a woman member of the parliament explained, “It is about the votes. Karzai is in a hurry to appease the Shia because the elctions are on the way. There are moderate views among the Shia but unfortunately our MPs, the people who draft the laws, rely on extremists.”

Shia Muslims constitute 20 per cent of Aghanistans population. Karzai is also unpopular in the country, having been seen as a puppet of the United States (US) and the occupation forces. He has also installed relatives in the government in a bid to consolidate his power. As Tariq Ali wrote in the New Left Review, “A quick-fix presidential contest organised at great expense by Western PR [public relation] firms in October 2004—just in time for the US elections—failed to bolster support for the puppet president inside the country.”

In a response to the outrage expressed by US President Barack Obama, United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Canada as well as the United Nation’s Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), Karzai surmised that the law may have been wrongly translated and interpreted by English-speaking leaders, media, and women’s rights advocates.

But for Sonali Kolhatkar of Afghan Women’s Mission thought otherwise, insisting that Karzai knew the contents of the law. In an interview with Al Jazeera, she said, “I doubt this law has been misunderstood. One of the representatives of Afghanistan’s own independent human rights commission saw the full law and saw the president’s signature on it.”

OHCHR head Navi Pillay also asserted, “This is another clear indication that the human rights situation in Afghanistan is getting worse not better,” Pillay said. “Respect for women’s rights – and human rights in general – is of paramount importance to Afghanistan’s future security and development. This law is a huge step in the wrong direction.”

Sources:
Al Jazeera. (5 April 2009). “Karzai to review ‘abhorrent’ law.” URL: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/04/200944174829557404.html

OHCHR. (2 April 2009). “UN human rights chief says Afghan law restricting women’s rights is reminiscent of Taliban era.” URL: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Media.aspx

Starkey, Jerome. (31 March 2009). “Afghan leader accused of bid to ‘legalise rape.’” URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghan-leader-accused-of-bid-to-legalise-rape-1658049.html

Tariq, Ali (2008). “Afghanistan: Mirrage of the Good War”, in the New Left Review. URL: http://www.newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2713/

The Canadian Press. (31 March 2009). “New Afghan law forcing sex draws outrage from Canada.” URL: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/03/31/afghan-family-law-women.html