Afghan Husbands Win Right to Starve Wives

Bowing to international pressure and unprecedented protests by hundreds of women on the streets of Kabul, the Afghan government promised in April to review a new law imposing severe restrictions on women in Shiite Muslim families.

Last week, though, Human Rights Watch discovered that a revised version of the Shiite Personal Status Law had been quietly put into effect at the end of July – meaning that Shiite men in Afghanistan now have the legal right to starve their wives if their sexual demands are not met and that Shiite women must obtain permission from their husbands to even leave their houses, “except in extreme circumstances”.

Although the law applies only to Shiites it could influence a proposed family law for the Sunni majority and a draft law on violence against women. This opens the way for more discrimination.

According to Human Rights Watch, the new law also “grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers” and “effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying ‘blood money’ to a girl who was injured when he raped her”.

Activists with the human rights group, said that the President of Afghanistan “has made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in return for the support of fundamentalists in the election”.

                                                                         R. Mackey. The NY Times

Practicum 10.18

Practice Expressing Annoyance / Mild Reproach strategyin the following situations (to be done in writing)

- a colleague of yours seems to be biased towards ethnic and racial minorities, address him / her with an Email to challenge his / her position; support your stand with appropriate arguments

- your boss is certainly a male chauvinist - women in your department stand no chance of promotion, being largely involved in mundane routine tasks (in contrast to their male counterparts). Make up a list of arguments to promote interests of your female colleagues in front of your boss at the annual personnel reappraisal session

III. Communication Practice

Brainstorming

You are a team of law students majoring in human rights issues. You are to make a presentation on human rights violations in the modern world. Generate a bank of ideas to be tackled during the presentation, do research and present your findings to the class (refer to The Human Rights Declaration Practicum 10.13).

PROGRESS TEST 10