Besides the obvious legalizing of rape towards married women, this is an added bullet to the heart of women in Afghanistan who daily fear being killed, mutilated, raped for such things as walking alone outside their home, going to school, etc. The very real threat of Honour killings/rape is a daily worry for Afghan women.
The bigger picture is that this is yet another example of why Afghanistan should be pressured to go the exact opposite direction and have women given more rights and protections.
Unfortunately in Islam, the poorer you are the more women are subjugated and treated as property. In Islamic countries the middle class and upper class women walk around looking much more western like in appearance and really out of touch with what the poor are going through, considering in most of these Islamic nations poor people represent a majority.
Its just so sad to keep hearing about this stuff, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Kingdom... They are all backwards in regards to women's rights and hide under religion to protect those attitudes.
In the end its the poverty and lack of education thats the biggest problem, if you give Afghanistan and other nations access to real education and work then you have something that can start to break down this cycle.
But since we Canadians and the west have invested into Afghanistan we should really be contacting our MPs, our UN rep, etc. The fact that these laws are being passed, the fact that young man who downloaded and printed out womens rights flyers got life imprisonment (down from death my hanging) and now that women are being yet again brought down by a system who treat their women like slaves and objects.
Its very sad.
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