Reply #5: Afghan law legalizes marital rape, critics say

[TechBear_Seattle]

Source: Seattle Times via Associated Press

KABUL — A new Afghan law makes it legal for men to rape their wives, human-rights groups and some Afghan lawmakers said Thursday, accusing President Hamid Karzai of signing the legislation to bolster his re-election prospects.

Critics worry the legislation undermines hard-won rights for women enacted after the fall of the Taliban's Islamist regime.

The law — which some lawmakers said was never debated in parliament — is intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan's Shiite community, which makes up about 20 percent of the country of 30 million people. The law does not affect Afghan Sunnis.

...

"As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night," Article 132 of the law says. "Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband."

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008976385_afghanrape03.html

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Thank goodness we brough equality and democracy to this country.