KABUL – Afghanistan’s justice ministry said yesterday a law for the country’s Shia minority is on hold and under review after provoking an outcry in the West over concerns about women’s rights.
Shia Muslims account for some 15 per cent of the population of mainly Sunni Muslim Afghanistan and the wide-ranging Shia Personal Status Law aims to enshrine differences between the two sects.
Critics say the law legalises marital rape, and some lawmakers allege president Hamid Karzai signed it hastily because he faces a crucial election on August 20th and wants to curry favour with Shia voters. US president Barack Obama has called the law “abhorrent”.
The justice ministry said it would not publish the law in the country’s official gazette, which would bring it into effect.
“The justice ministry is working on the law, and on those articles which were problematic and, for the time being, the law is not going to be published,” a ministry spokesman said.
But supporters of the law say it is an important defence of minority rights and traditions that was debated on and off for two years before being approved by both chambers of parliament and signed by Mr Karzai.
After it drew criticism from Afghanistan’s western allies, Mr Karzai promised on Saturday that the justice minister would speak on it in detail, but he has not yet done so.
A copy of the unpublished law states “a wife is obliged to fulfil the sexual desires of her husband” when she is healthy, and has to wear make-up if her husband demands it.
Article 137 also says a woman cannot inherit any of her husband’s wealth when he dies, a provision that already applies to Sunni Muslim women under Afghan law.
Amendments made to the Shia law raise the marriage age for women from nine to 16 and permit a woman to leave her home unaccompanied for medical treatment, to go to work or for her education.
The United States, Canada, Britain and the UN have spoken out against the law. Nato secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said last week it might also make it harder for member states to boost troop numbers battling Taliban insurgents. – (Reuters)