Afghan cleric rejects outcry over new law
KABUL, Afghanistan - A key backer of an Afghan law that critics say legalizes marital rape and rolls back women's rights rejected an international outcry as foreign meddling yesterday and insisted that the law offers women many protections.
KABUL, Afghanistan - A key backer of an Afghan law that critics say legalizes marital rape and rolls back women's rights rejected an international outcry as foreign meddling yesterday and insisted that the law offers women many protections.
The law, passed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse, and regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone.
"It is essential for the woman to submit to the man's sexual desire," the law says.
The legislation has raised the specter of the deposed hard-line Taliban regime, which fell in 2001 after the United States invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban required women to wear all-covering burqas and banned them from leaving home without a male relative.
Because of an international uproar over the new law, which President Obama called abhorrent, Afghan President Hamid Karzai put it under review. That put enforcement of the law on hold.
Mohammad Asif Mohseni, a top Afghan cleric and one of the main drafters of the law, said the legislation could not be revoked or changed because it was enacted through a legislative process - passed by both houses of parliament and signed by Karzai.
"The Westerners claim that they have brought democracy to Afghanistan. What does democracy mean? It means government by the people for the people. They should let the people use these democratic rights," Mohseni told reporters in the capital, Kabul.
Surrounded by supporters, Mohseni unfurled reams of paper with hundreds of women's signatures and thumbprints backing the law. The legislation resulted from three years of debate and revision involving Islamic scholars and members of parliament, Mohseni said.
Afghanistan is an Islamic state and its constitution defers to the Quran as the ultimate authority. Mohseni said the law simply reiterates rules from Islam's holy book.
He argued that the law is permissive because it allows women to go out of the home for medical emergencies or other urgent reasons without asking.
Mohseni said much of the uproar has come from people misinterpreting the law. He said women can refuse sex with their husbands for many reasons beyond illness, including fasting for Ramadan, preparing for a pilgrimage, menstruation, or recovering from giving birth.
Though the law applies only to the country's Shiite population - 10 percent to 20 percent of Afghanistan's 30 million people - Mohseni, the country's top Shiite cleric, said most of the articles could also be applied to Sunnis. A prominent Sunni cleric, Mawlawi Habibullah Ahsam, said the rules about women submitting to sex and leaving the home would also be acceptable to Sunnis.
