WOMEN WHO flee domestic violence to family shelters would be forced to submit to intimate medical examinations and then be locked up under a shake-up that critics say is a sop to the Taliban.
New regulations seen by The Irish Timesgoverning women's shelters would also apparently force beaten women to leave once their families asked for them back.
Campaigners say the move is the latest ploy by conservative clerics who want to roll back limited advances in women’s freedoms as a concession to open talks with the Taliban.
The overhaul of the rules at the country’s dozen or so shelters follows recent Supreme Court advice that beaten women cannot run away to a stranger’s house because “this act could cause crimes like adultery and prostitution”.
All the country’s women’s shelters, which are currently run by independent charities, would be placed under control of the Afghan government’s ministry of women’s affairs.
Rules state residents must have “forensic” medical examinations when they arrive and “may not leave the compound”. They must wear veils at all times and would be expelled if “accepted into the dwelling of her family or relatives”.
Women’s rights campaigners said they were happy for the women’s ministry to advise shelters, but the takeover was a political attempt to shut them down.
“As an arm of the government itself, the ministry of women’s affairs lacks the independence and the will to stand up for women’s rights against an increasingly conservative regime,” said Manizha Naderi, executive director of Women for Afghan Women.
“We are outraged by this bill, which is the patent effort of the Afghan government to stop the work of non-governmental organisations on behalf of women’s rights.”
Shelters have become a social battlefield as conservative factions in the clergy and judiciary warn that international attention on women’s rights is a conspiracy to undermine Islam.
An investigative exposé of shelters broadcast on a television station owned by a conservative warlord has alleged the refuges are only a cover for prostitution.
Selay Ghaffar, executive director of humanitarian assistance for the women and children of Afghanistan, said: “If they bring in these regulations, it will be no different from prison. It will be done to humiliate women. I can see a political agenda behind this handover of shelters because there are still many people in Afghanistan who are in high positions who are misogynistic.”
Many women also fear the increasing conservatism of Hamid Karzai’s government heralds possible social concessions to the Taliban under a peace deal. The Nato alliance has said a political settlement must respect the women’s rights enshrined in the Afghan constitution, but campaigners believe they will be sold out.
Nader Nadery, of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, said the government was restricting women’s rights “so that the environment looks conducive for the Taliban to come and reconcile”.
He said: “They are sending these signals, that: ‘look, we have made these changes and look we are putting some restrictions, we are taking on board some of your concerns’. It’s a very, very wrong policy. If you give in more, in advance of any talks, you feed into the confidence of the Taliban, so that they will come and dictate their terms. “They will not accept the constitution; they will not accept the gains of the past nine or 10 years,” Mr Nadery added.