Afghan president endorses clerics’ code that allows wife beating, segregation of sexes

Toronto Star

(Amazingly enough)

Published On Tue Mar 06 2012

  • Hamid Karzai's endorsement of the Ulemic Council 's code of conduct worries activists.

Hamid Karzai’s endorsement of the Ulemic Council ‘s code of conduct worries activists.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Heidi Vogt Associated Press

KABUL—Afghanistan’s president on Tuesday endorsed a “code of conduct” issued by an influential council of clerics that activists say represents a giant step backward for women’s rights in the country.

President Hamid Karzai’s Tuesday remarks backing the Ulema Council’s document, which allows husbands to beat wives under certain circumstances and encourages segregation of the sexes, is seen as part of his outreach to insurgents like the Taliban.

Both the U.S. and Karzai hope that the Taliban can be brought into negotiations to end the country’s decade-long war. But activists say they’re worried that gains made by women since 2001 may be lost in the process.

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan prior to the 2001 U.S. invasion, girls were banned from going to school and women had to wear burqas that covered them from head to toe. Women were not allowed to leave their homes without a male relative as an escort.

The “code of conduct” issued Friday by the Ulema Council as part of a longer statement on national political issues is cast as a set of guidelines that religious women should obey voluntarily, but activists are concerned it will herald a reversal of the trend in Afghanistan since 2001 to pass laws aimed at expanding women’s rights.

Among the rules: Women should not travel without a male guardian and women should not mingle with strange men in places like schools, markets or offices. Beating one’s wife is prohibited only if there is no “Shariah-compliant reason,” it said, referring to the principles of Islamic law.

Asked about the code of conduct at a press conference in the capital, Karzai said it was in line with Islamic law and was written in consultation with Afghan women’s groups. He did not name the groups that were consulted.

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Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

4 Replies to “Afghan president endorses clerics’ code that allows wife beating, segregation of sexes”

  1. So just exactly what did we achieve here.Apart from marching our guys into a battle zone,with there hands tied behind there backs,and making them sitting targets?

  2. everything about mulims is backward they stopped evolving 2000 years ago and infact they are actually now devolving and dragging the rst of civilised world down to their primitive level

  3. They don’t evolve at all. They devolve and this conehead, this poor excuse for a man will do anything to retain power. He is throwing Afghan women under the bus without a second thought.

    Everything withers & dies in the path of islam.

  4. Well that’s sure worth getting your legs blown off for.
    It’s the men who have been maimed and killed for this that I feel sorry for.
    Politicians they are the ones out there who should be dodging bullets and bombs, a nice dose of reality.