Westerners reacted with indignation and contempt last week when it was reported that President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan had signed a bill which, according the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) “legalizes rape.”
In pertinent part, the offending Article 132:
… requires women to obey their husband’s sexual demands and stipulates that a man can expect to have sex with his wife at least ‘once every four nights’ when travelling, unless they are ill. The law also gives men preferential inheritance rights, easier access to divorce, and priority in court.
(The Independent, March 31, 2009)
But the irony is not lost on me that Karzai endorsed this patently undemocratic bill purportedly to win the support of Islamic fundamentalists in forthcoming democratic elections.
I am mindful, however, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just formed a coalition government by joining forces with Avigdor Lieberman’s far-right Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home) Party whose platform calls for the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel: rather like the Nazi Party calling for the expulsion of all Jews from Germany … no?
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama must have resented the European press at last week’s G-20 summit asking him to explain how Karzai’s Talibanic compromise to stay in power further US interests.
But Obama demonstrated his confidence, pragmatism and refreshing honesty when he responded by insisting that the primary mission of US forces in Afghanistan is not to govern that country but to hunt al-Qaeda terrorist.
He then displayed his political astuteness by condemning the law and assuring human rights groups that he had already dispatched his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, to prevail upon Karzai to reconsider his endorsement.
Within hours Karzai issued a statement promising that:
… measures will be taken … to correct provisions of the law … that limit or restrict women’s rights.
Enough said.
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