About 300 mostly young women gathered in Kabul to show their opposition to a recently passed law that forbids women from refusing to have sex with their husbands and requires them to get a male relative's permission to leave the house.The demonstration, organized by women's rights activists in the country, occurred in front of a Shia mosque recently built by a cleric who helped craft the law. Critics of the law say it effectively legalizes rape within marriage and is a return to Taliban-style rule.
About 1,000 people opposed to the protest surrounded the women and threw gravel and small stones as police struggled to hold them back.
I am so moved by the courage of these 300 women, dwarfed by over two times as many in opposition, marching through the streets for their right to have control over their bodies and their sexuality--even in marriage. I'm also struck by the solidarity of the women police officers, who reportedly formed a human chain around the protesters to protect them from the angry counter-protesters. It's heartening to hear a story where law enforcement respects peoples' right to gather and express dissent, even on such a volatile issue.
Thanks to all the readers who made sure we covered this by sending in links.
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Somehow this doesn't surprise me. I agree that these women are very courageous for what they did.
I think its amazing the amount of courage these women are exhibiting. I am sure they know the repercussions of standing up and speaking out against the government and how serious those consequences will be. Despite the chance of death, they are speaking out and doing whats right. Amazing.
These women really are courageous. I hope their protests achieve some good.
I do wonder, however, where their husbands, brothers, fathers, etc. are. According to the article, the law in question not only legalized marital rape, but also requires women to get a male relative's permission in order to leave the house. Did these women lie to get permission? If so, I suspect that they would be in danger once they returned home- their pictures have been published, and surely some were recognized by the counter-protesters. On the other hand, if they did tell their male relatives what they were doing that day, then where the hell are the male relatives? Why aren't they protesting too?
In the same vein, I'm also a little surprised that the police allowed the protest to happen at all. It seems like it would be easy enough to say that the women didn't have the right to be on the streets, didn't have documented permission from their male relatives, etc. That the police allowed the protest to happen at all, to my mind, seems like a good sign.
What do folks have to say to the fact that there were women involved in the "opposition" crowd, that supported the law?
I found one quote, and of course I now cannot find it, from a woman involved in the larger crowd, who said that Western media/culture/thought was misinterpreting this law. Are we imposing our own standards of feminism to a culture that may just be inherently different from ours? Or, why do women there support this law?
I saw that comment too. As a western woman of color, (feeling the pull on the gender side and the cultural one) I don't agree with her sentiment, but I can certainly understand. As bad as it looks to us, we simply don't know these women's daily lives.
Also, not speaking specifically about Afghanistan, but traditional communities that overvalue masculinity and undervalue femininity, often rely on the dedication of mothers to the home to maintain cultural norms. A woman can add value, even if just a little bit, to her positioning in her community by complying.
As far as us imposing our cultural standards, yes we are. I struggle with that question too. But if this law was about re-instating slavery, would it seem wrong to speak out? For all the shit we are doing to the planet, to each other, etc, I just hope that people in the future will look back and say that gender equality qualified as a good thing to spread.
I've thought about that too, and I think it eventually has to boil down to what you believe to be basic human rights, and the choice to exercise them. Nobody's going to hold a gun to your head and force you to use all your rights all the time, but at least you have the choice to use them. Wear the burqa, don't wear the burqa, whatever. Right now, women in Afghanistan don't have the choice.
Opponents are always going to bring up the specter of cultural imperialism when trying to quell human-rights revolutions. It's not a reason to stop fighting against a law that erodes very basic rights for people. The right for an adult to leave their house without a man's permission? Pretty basic.
So why do women there support this law, and other like it? Perhaps it's a survival or coping mechanism to agree, either sincerely or unctuously, with the men who hold their lives captive. Perhaps it's fear of change, and upsetting the balance, and the worry that things could get worse as a result of major upheaval. Perhaps it's a belief that traditions are sacred, and deviance punishable by divine retribution. Perhaps by publicly voicing support for radical notions, folks would lose social status and be branded as crazies.
There are a lot of reasons regular people support the status quo. That doesn't mean that change is bad.
The fact that 300 women had the conviction and courage to face what they knew would be violent opposition during their march says a lot about the "other" half of the culture that's not being represented in male-dominated legislation. The rights of adults to have reasonable access to public life, to not be raped, to not be beaten for refusing to wear the right burqa - I think we can all get behind these goals without worrying about cultural lenses and different standards of feminism.
I hesitate to call the oppression of an entire people "culture." Raping your wife isn't a mere cultural difference between Afghanis and Americans. It's a human rights violation. I highly doubt that the women who support this law still want to be raped by their husbands. But they have no choice in the matter, so they might as well comply.
No!!!!!!! I can't take this anymore.
Some of the most sexist backward people I've known were women. Being female doesn't make you an expert of what's right for women.
How can you be so insensitive to the women protestors? Suggesting that their opposition might have a leg to stand on because it includes women ... just ... wow!
I have found that Westerners do misinterpret the law as, for example, applying to all women in Afghanistan rather than to the Shiite community exclusively. And it does occur to me that if a woman were to leave her community, it may be possible for her to simply refuse to live under Shiite laws. But even if that is possible, it's a heavy price to pay.
Personally I have no problem with spreading respect for human rights to other parts of the world. If rights aren't universal, what's the point? And if culture trumps human rights, then we couldn't even apply feminist standards to Western culture, much less Afghan culture.
Besides, these women who are protesting are just as Afghan as the women who are counter-protesting.
that's probably because they come from tribes or villages, they are poor, uneducated and illiterate. Most feminist activists in Afghanistan are from the cities and have some education.
There are antifeminist women in this country too-Phyllis Schlafly and Ann Coulter, for instance. Some people under oppression will always find it safer to side with the status quo, especially in places like Afghanistan, where some women have been killed for merely stating their preference in a marriage partner or other simple things we take for granted.
I'm pleasantly surprised that there are still female police officers in Afghanistan. May God help them.
I wondered how they were allowed to become officers, considering women need men's permission to leave the house...I was happy to hear that there are female police officers too.
The law doesn't apply to all women in Afghanistan. It applies to women in the Shia community, and the Shiites make up only around 10% of Afghanistan. It's quite possible that the female police officers are not Shiites and that the law doesn't apply to them in the first place.
Did anyone else appreciate the irony of the men who called these women whores --for demanding the right to say no to sex?
Holy shit. These women are my new heroes.
Dear Teabaggers,
This is what true courage in the face of oppression looks like.
Sincerely,
Skwrr
Thank you!
I think some of the women among the counter-protesters were very young, a bunch of them were students at some sort of religious college. It seems like they interpret the law as "respectful to women" because it promotes a virtuous life-style. At least one of them reported being insulted by the insinuation that Afghani men could rape their spouse, and that their men, unlike american men, would never do that! They sound naive and unexperienced... I say education is the key.
Those women are so brave. Those men are fucking COWARDS.
Right! The legal reform affirms as the report «International amnesty» across Afghanistan for 2007, called to protect the right of the Afghani women, that «and has not been realised, and women in this country continue to exist as prisoners».
The women driven to despair even more often try to settle scores with a life. If in 2006 the Independent Commission of Human Rights has registered 110 cases of self-burning in 5 provinces of the country in 2007 only in Herat more than 90 women tried to finish a life by self-burning, from them 70 were lost, and survived for all life remained cripples.
Let it is their first step on a way to equality, but this step very important. No pasaran!
How can I send money to these women protesters?
http://www.rawa.org/donation.htm
These people were not stoned. The laws enacted were appalling, as were the reactions of the "counter protesters" - but the actual stoning of women, in addition to many other sorts of horrible, tortuous murders in the name of honor, are still widely practiced. The deaths of women murdered in such a way are abominations and so egregious that I believe we should be accurate with our terminology.