Remember that law that legalizes rape and child marriage in Afghanistan, the country we "liberated," which now supplies the vast majority of heroin to Europe? Via The [UK] TImes:
A group of Afghan women who braved an enraged mob yesterday to protest against an “abhorrent” new Afghan law had to be rescued by police from a hail of stones and abuse.
The protest by about 200 women, unprecedented in recent Afghanistan history, was directed at the Shia Family Law passed last month by the Afghan parliament which appears to legalise marital rape and child marriage.
The rally, staged by mostly young women with their faces exposed, was a highly inflammatory act of defiance in a country as conservative as Afghanistan. It provoked a furious reaction from local men and a rapidly expanding mob threatened to swamp the demonstrators as they tried to approach the Afghan parliament.
More from The Independent.
Women marching against new legislation which effectively legalizes rape met violent opposition from an opposing mob in Kabul yesterday.
Dozens of riot police, backed by more than 50 elite counter-terrorism officers, struggled to keep the groups apart as hordes of men charged at the protesters, who had taken to the streets near Afghanistan's parliament.
At one point the women , who were marching to parliament to deliver a petition, were pelted with stones. Men chanted "long live Islam" and spat at the women who had assembled outside a mosque built by Ayatollah Mohseni, the Shia cleric who helped draft the law. At a separate demonstration, police fired into the air to disperse a mob surrounding a school accused of organizing the protests.
-John Byrne
Why fire into the air? Those motherfucking taliban will cause death and disaster as long as they live. It's better to kill them all now, save the world a lot of grief.
Regardless of religion and law, how can anyone with a 'heart' and 'soul' think that something like this is even remotely OK? WTF? *shaking head* I just don't understand how it can be "ok" to harm someone like that - sheesh.
Chris, didn't you know it's OK to justify any heinous act as long as one claims it's in the name of religion?
Yes, it's mind-boggling, indeed. Sheesh. What holy hell.
Just think, you and I are paying for this new Afgani government with all of our taxes we just sent in. This is a crime against humanity. Send these "men" back to the stone-age in wooden boxes.
Gives Obama's Afgan war a good reason.
Read the article about Afghan men having the right to rape their wives. Then read the comments on how the Taliban are monsters and MFers. The article is lying and the comments follow suit. This is propaganda at its best (worst). Nowhere is the law actually quoted. What does the law say? Afghan SHIA women (it does not apply to others-it is a religious law, not a civil law). It has nothing to do with the Taliban or AlQaida. The law says that married women must have sex with their husbands every fourth day if the husband asks for it. It says nothing about rape. Sex is a part of marriage. What kind of marriage is it that has no sex, and no children? If a woman doesnt want sex. she shouldnt get married. Even better, she shouldnt be a Shia. Women in Afghanistan can go to school and get jobs. The fact that 200 women went out there and screamed at the mosque proves that Afghan women are not helpless, and dont need Westrerners to get into their business, wringing their hands and crying crying crocoile tears while we feel smug about how well we treat "our" women.
Now if they'd just add lynching, they'll be at about the same level the US was 40 years ago.
The fight for human rights is a long one.
Hey, Antonio, you have no clue, do you? Here's the law: "The law, which applied only to the minority Shia community, would have forbidden women from refusing to have sex with their husbands and from leaving the home without permission." This shows that these clerics and the government believe that women are merely property, have no feelings, and are the men's slaves. I wonder how you'd feel if you were a woman. Why don't you just crawl back into the hole from where you came. We don't need your kind. This world has enough horrible people in it.
And we care why? We are not nation building, especially nation building in our own image. We are there to kill fake alqueda terrorists. Anything else is "mission creep."
Many women consider that rape, Antonio, because they are creating a law that justifies and allows a man to force his wife to have sex with him . . . hence rape. And, furthermore, many of these women do not have the freedom to chose if they want to get married or not. Many are forced into arranged marriages at a very young age. And, Antonio, there are many people who have different sex drives that have to learn to compromise in marriage . . . or they can walk away. Guess what? Afghan women are allowed no choice, no compromis, no way out. Which is why several have gone to the extreme length of setting themselves on fire as a way to protest and end their abusive marriages. It just floors me that you took the time to argue for this misogynistic law . . . AND you went so far as to try and turn this around onto the victims of this awful law. Nice.
Rider3 - so what's your point? In the US, the government considers me their property since it can confiscate my wages with the threat of imprisonment or death for non-compliance. They also think that the can draft me into a war with the threat of imprisonment or death for non-compliance.
This shows the the US government believes people living in the US are merely property, have no feelings, and are its slaves. Why don't you fix your respective government first and then worry about a 3rd-world country that we shouldn't be occupying in the first place.
Ted, your 'logic' misses one big difference. It is unlikely that a mob would spit on you or throw stones at you if you publically protest the actions of your government.
I have never heard of anyone in the US getting the death penalty for not paying taxes, and the US does not draft citizens into the military.
The Afgani women who participated in this protest should be lauded for their courage.
Antonio, you stupid fuck.. if you "have to" under pain of duress/death/beating and you do NOT WANT TO, that's RAPE.
What a piece of shit you are.
And "Ted" is just as totally fucktarded as Antonio.. wow..
Ted, if you don't want to pay your taxes I suggest moving to a country without a fire department, police department, road maintenance, freedom, etc if you hate the US so much. See you're free leave the US (and please do), but Afghan women are not. See the difference?
It really amazes me that men, who appear to really enjoy having sex with women, personally seem to despise them so much- to the extent that they would spit on or throw stones at them.
That makes it apparent that they essentially hate all women, if they can't even be respectful of the fact that these women are someone's mother, grandmother, wife, sister or child. It means they don't even like the women they are related to, much less the ones they are married to. So why do they want the right to rape them? Because they don't like them, and it's not about sex, it's about power.
I have 2 boys, and if I ever read that women were spitting on or throwing rocks at men, it would make me sad for my boys. Regardless of what sex they are, I love my children and want them to be treated well. What kind of real father wouldn't want that for his daughters? What kind of mother would I be to support laws that hurt my boys? The kind who hates men.
Here's a newsflash--- LOTS of women LIKE to have sex. They just generally don't like having sex with mean people, and they don't like being 'forced' to. If I was married off to some old bully who hated women at the age of 13, I'm guessing I wouldn't be able to work up the lust to be wanting to have sex with the old creep, no matter what the law said. I'm guessing I'd be protesting in the streets, too.
It really does surprise me, how so many men hate women, all the animousity towards treating them like people. I just don't get it. If you are nice, funny, affectionate and kind, not only will women like you, they will actually WANT to have sex with you. Making some law forcing it is such a sissy way of getting out of having to be a real man that a woman will respect and desire. And, having sex with someone several times a week because they actually like and desire you seems to me as probably more fulfilling than someone who has to grit their teeth and do it every four days and then despise you afterwards.
Welcome to America. While we have our faults, as a woman, I have the right to vote, go out of the house by myself (even in a bathing suit), the right to marry someone I love (In my case, someone younger than me instead of some old geezer), and the right to have sex as often as I/we want without bully laws forcing it.
I have to admit I am curious as to who came up with the 'every four days' thing. And, does it work both ways? Can a woman sue if her husband won't have sex with her eevry four days? If it's a law, it should work that way.
c
What will the Nazi Feminist complain about next? They live in a Ring Wing, Utopian theocracy and they complain about something as trivial as husband raping their wives! The nerve!
Anyone who makes justification for forced acts under religious edict, as "Antonio" and other like "minded" RELIGIOUS sycophants, obviously lack the mental capacity to grasp civil rights and equality, whether it is forced sexual intercourse with a straight couple, or in an American example, depriving Gay couples equality in marriage. Religion and government DO NOT MIX!!!! Capiche???
HOPEFULLY this is what the Afghan war will be about, hopefully.
Antonio said- 'What kind of marriage is it that has no sex, and no children?'.
Probably every marriage of people over the age of 60. I think it's called 'LOVE'.
There are tons of people who can't have sex for medical reasons. Tons of people who are either going through menopause or having erectile dysfunctions due to age. Men AND women. There are both men and women who even having regular sex are not fertile and cannot have children. Should old people and infertile people not have sex? Should young people divorce because even though they are having sex every four days or more, they can't conceive?
The stupidity of your logic is astounding. Your lack of understanding the underlying issue, which is not really about sex is pathetic. I'm guessing that you are either single for obvious reasons, or you treat your partner like dirt and are all confused about why she doesn't get hot for you every four days.
Sex shouldn't be a duty or a chore or a legal requirement. It should be (if you are physically capable) a natural result of being around someone who treats you well and makes you happy. Being happy with a person is THE biggest turn-on there is.
You don't appear to understand even the basics of mutual male and female sexuality and attraction. Which makes me more understanding of why you'd be approving of sexist laws that would force the issue. Because otherwise, most of those men would never get lucky. They NEED to have laws to force it. What losers.
c
The ultimate source of evil, hate, killing, and war in the world can be stated in a single word: RELIGION.
U.S. IS FREE!!!
But the U.S. has the highest per-capita prison population in the world.
THE U.S. IS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS!!!
But westerners don't have a problem with land stealing apartheid Israel, Saudi Arabia, or the slave state Dubai.
THE U.S. PROMOTES DEMOCRACIES!!!
Yet they support dictators all over the world, with death squads funded by Shell Oil and Coca Cola.
THE U.S. IS HIPOCRITICAL!!!
They have to justify imperialism somehow.
Hey, Antonio!
Blow me.
America should invade Afghanistan and liberate it from those theocrats. Oh wait, never mind.
ever heard of the "Rule of Thumb"? look it up. please. these Men are upholding their rights and laws. leave them the f&^% alone it's their country. listen, you have no moral position whatsoever to judge anyone, at least most good books say that.
so, stop being submissive and willfully ignorant and grow up! we're the ones dropping $100,000. bombs on innocent Families in $400. cars and it's in their Country. remember that the next time you pay your taxes. and heart please. we have poor bastards in the street here who need all kinds of help and can;t get it. our own Veterans can't even get medical help when they need it.
i never understood how a Husband could rape his Wife anyway. if he doesn't satisfy her in this Country it's an irreconcilable difference. if he wants some and she doesn't..he's raping her. please. enough. stop being a corporate pawn and not even knowing it. most of our Women are garbage i mean how many truly honorable Women in this Country do you know? it's OK for our women to fu%$ who they want, when they want, spend all their money on poisonous junk, leave the kids with whomever they can find, so they can run off and be a slave for corporate Country. oh.and pay more taxes. liberated my ass.
they ain't letting that happen. applause and commendation. you keep being willfully ignorant the tolerance level in this Country is going to swing.
FOX news cheered cheney and bush for bringing democracy (destruction) to Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that Iraq is cleric rule instead of secular and the Taliban are running Afghanistan again and a couple trillion dollars later, how's that sitting with you tea baggers. Viva hypocrocy!
just thought id point this out...
Afghan women protesting against marital rape law are stoned; ARE STONED.
THEY ARE STONED,
they couldve used a better range of words , rather than stoned.
at first glance it not only insults the afghan women, but is an insult to the journalist, and the corp. that he represents, for their ignorance.
ANTONIO
You make excellent points, well said. I completely differ with your view of woman's role, but agree completely with your first and last statements. But, then again, It's none of my business what a minority of religious nutcases need made into Afgan law. We've got our own silly religious nutcases here in US trying to legislate sky fairies and 10,000 year old earth as science and such. Yikes!
It's too easy to lay our own standards on other cultures and use the differences to vilify them. Most of the comments here are disappointingly narrow.
The fact that this protest took place shows some progress in Afghanistan. The fact that the Shia minority had to accept a marginal law, applying to only their people, shows progress. The Shia must have a voice, just like Christain evangelicals must have a voice in USA. I see the two as approximately the same. It sucks, but hey, they are part of the populace.
The parliament was under pressure to acknowledge the Shia minorities view that gods law is the only law, lest they try to overthrow the government, again.
C'mon folks, think. The law doesn't apply to you or most of Afghanistan. It's barbaric for sure, but it's existence serves to stabilize.
Notice the police did not arrest the protestors....more progress. In times past, they would have all been killed by police.
Methinks some of those commenting here don't acknowledge that their limited view is dangerous, holier than thou, my way or the highway crap and equally insidious and ignorant.
damix austex said, "The law doesn't apply to you or most of Afghanistan. It's barbaric for sure, but it's existence serves to stabilize."
And my first thought was, "Oh, like Jim Crow laws"
Not buying it, damix.