One of the reasons George Bush and the United States went to war in Afghanistan was to topple the ruthless Taliban regime with a long record of human rights abuses and bring "freedom and democracy" to the country.
It turns out that the new "democratic" government of Afghanistan, backed by the United States, is hardly any better than the Taliban when it comes to human rights abuses.
In some ways, the new government is even worse than the Taliban.
As German Der Spiegel writes, Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, recently "signed a new law pertaining to Shiite families in Afghanistan which forces Shiite women to ask their husband's permission before leaving the home and forces them to have sexual intercourse."
According to the Article 132 of the new law, "the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband."
Article 133 says: "The husband can stop the wife from any unnecessary act." Furthermore, the new law requires wives to get the permission of their husbands before they leave the house.
Many human rights activists in Afghanistan and around the world expressed outrage at the new law.
So far, the only praise for the discriminatory law came from the Taliban, whose spokesperson said: "The Shiite law is similar to the rules of the Taliban. We support it."
What happened to Geoge Bush's "Afghanistan is a better place now than before we 'liberated' it?" I bet the Shiite women would strongly disagree with him.
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Savo Heleta is the author of "Not My Turn to Die: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia" (March 2008, AMACOM Books). He holds an M.Phil degree in Conflict Transformation and Management from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Visit www.savoheleta.com for more info.
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Comments: 5
There are Christian sects who view of women isn't that much more advanced. I recall that just about a decade ago one group of Baptists declared that a wife should be subservient to her husband and obey his wishes.
As for Bush's reasons for going to war in Afganistan, I don't think it had anything to do with how the females were treated under the Taliban. Being able to cite that was just decorative icing on the cake.
Blessings and best wishes - S.
Actually, that's exactly how they touted it. They bragged openly about the freedoms that women were enjoying that they didn't before.
"Maybe those muslims have it right about the women, most women are out of control given a chance."
How quaint! Another woman hater! Something tells me somebody has a hard time getting laid! hahaha!
"The bible says"
Yes, that's what we need in this country...a good ol' fashioned Christian Taliban, to smack those mean, unruly women into line. God, you people are pathetic.
"As long as those people let Islam rule their lives, they will never get out of the dark ages."
The same can be said of Christianity, obviously. The fact is, as long as this planet allows religions to control governments, we're all doomed. It's time we killed religion, period.