How sad is this - NATO-led coalition sacrified hundreds of troops, billions of dollars in arms and financing, yet the Afghan leadership is passing the kind of legislature that Taliban would. In a way the current leadership is the Fifth Column for Taliban movement.

I say to the Canadian troops: stop guarding the heroin crops and let's get the hell out of Afghanistan. Besides, nearly 60% of Canadians oppose the participation in Afghanistan anyway.

http://www.thespec.com/News/article/546921


Top Afghan cleric defends marriage law

quote:

April 11, 2009 By Rahim Faiez and Heidi Vogt The Associated Press KABUL - A key backer of an Afghan law that critics say legalizes marital rape and rolls back women's rights rejected an international outcry as foreign meddling Saturday and insisted the legislation offers women many protections. The law, passed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse, and regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone. The legislation has raised the spectre of the deposed hardline Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The strict Islamist regime required women to wear body-covering burkas and banned them from leaving home without a male relative. Following an international uproar, in which U.S. President Barack Obama called the law "abhorrent," Afghan President Hamid Karzai put it under review. The move puts enforcement on hold. Mohammad Asif Mohseni, a top Afghan cleric who was one of the law's main drafters, said the legislation cannot be revoked or changed because it was enacted through a legislative process - passed by both houses of parliament and signed by Karzai. He condemned the outcry, saying western countries were trying to thwart democracy when results did not please them. "The westerners claim that they have brought democracy to Afghanistan. What does democracy mean? It means government by the people for the people. They should let the people use these democratic rights," Mohseni told reporters in the capital, Kabul. Surrounded by supporters, Mohseni unfurled reams of paper with hundreds of women's signatures and thumbprints backing the law. The legislation came out of three years of debate and revision involving both Islamic scholars and members of parliament, Mohseni said. Afghanistan is an Islamic state and its constitution defers to the Qur'an as the ultimate authority. Mohseni said the law simply reiterates rules from Islam's holy book. "In Shariah law, it states that a woman cannot go out without the permission of her husband," he said. He argued that the law is permissive because it allows a woman to go out for a medical emergency or other urgent reason without asking beforehand. In addition, a couple can agree to opt out of this rule when signing a marriage contract, he said. Mohseni said much of the uproar has come from people misinterpreting the law. He said a woman can refuse sex with her husband for many reasons beyond illness. For example, he said, a woman may be fasting for Ramadan, preparing for a pilgrimage, menstruating, or just given birth. Mohseni also argued that the law can be interpreted to mean simply sleeping in the same room as a couple every four nights, but an Associated Press translation of the pertinent article suggests this reading is unlikely. The law says that every fourth day a man Òcan pass the night with his wife, unless it is harmful for either side, or either of them is suffering from any kind of sexual disease. It is essential for the woman to submit to the man's sexual desire." "If she is not sick, and if she does not have another problem, it is the right of a man to ask for sex and she should make herself ready for it. This is the right of a man," Mohseni explained. Though the law only applies to the country's Shiite population - 10 per cent to 20 per cent of Afghanistan's 30 million people - Mohseni, the country's top Shiite cleric, said most of the articles could also be applied to Sunnis. A prominent Sunni cleric, Maulavi Habibullah Ahsam, said the rules about women submitting to sex and leaving the home would also be acceptable to Sunnis. Not everyone is happy with the law in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, dozens of Afghan legislators and officials condemned the legislation, saying it encourages re-Talibanization. The law contradicts the country's constitution and human rights, treating women as objects rather than subjects, they said in a declaration. The Afghan Constitution states that both men and women "have equal rights and duties before the law." Much has improved for women since the fall of the Taliban. Millions of girls now attend school, and many women own businesses. Of 351 parliamentarians, 89 are women. But in the conservative country, critics fear those gains could easily be reversed. Mohseni argued that women and men are very far from equal in today's Afghanistan and should not be treated as such. He pointed out that many rural women are illiterate and would not be able to find work if they were asked to provide some of the family's financial support. Men are typically the breadwinners in Afghan households, expected to provide for their wives and children. "It is not possible for all women to pay the same amount of money as men are paying. For all these expenses, can't we at least give the right to a husband to demand sex from his wife after four nights?" he said.

In other developments:

http://www.thespec.com/News/article/564771

Afghan sex-abuse allegations unfounded: military police

quote:

OTTAWA — Allegations that Canadian commanders turned a blind eye to sexual abuse of young boys by Afghan soldiers and police have been dismissed as unfounded by military investigators. The Canadian Forces National Investigative Service, which oversees military police, says it has determined allegations made by returning soldiers and the pastors who counselled them contained “serious discrepancies” and could not be verified. “There’s rumours and innuendos of course, but there’s no information to corroborate those allegations,” said Lt.-Col. Gilles Sansterre, head of the investigative branch. At least two soldiers have claimed they witnessed young Afghan boys being led into a Canadian forward operating base, where they were sodomized by Afghan troops and police. “We interviewed a number of people that could provide us some information and the bottom line is that testimony of some people was inconsistent and could not be corroborated by others,” said Sansterre. “We’ve been led to the conclusion the allegations are unfounded.” Maj. Kevin Klein, a high-ranking chaplain, has said publicly he warned commanders in 2007 about accounts of sex abuse that he was hearing from soldiers. Another chaplain, Jean Johns, said she counselled a Canadian soldier who said he witnessed a boy being raped and then wrote a report on the allegation for her brigade chaplain. Despite their claims, Sansterre said military police found no evidence that the allegations were reported to the chain of command. The investigation was thorough, and in the end there was no evidence Canadian military law was broken, he added. The fact the alleged crimes happened in Afghanistan was a complicating factor in the investigation. Sansterre said military police have jurisdiction over Canadian soldiers and civilians in the war-torn region, not Afghan nationals in their own country. There wasn’t even enough evidence to pass along to Afghan police for them to launch their own investigation, he said. The allegations that Afghan soldiers, police and even interpreters sexually abused young boys while on Canadian bases in Kandahar also prompted a wider investigation involving a military board inquiry, which has yet to deliver its findings. The NDP’s defence critic called it an “unconvincing report” and accused the military of sweeping the matter under the rug. “There’s an effort here to close the file on this thing and I don’t think that’s the right thing to do,” said Newfoundland MP Jack Harris. “It’s pretty clear that these reports were passed on to the chain of command and what we want to know is what was done about them.” Documents obtained by the New Democrats under the Access to Information Act show that after the allegations were raised in public, senior officers ordered to soldiers to report any suspected cases of abuse so they could flag them for investigation by Afghan officials. The troops, however, expressed skepticism to padres in the field that much would be done about it — citing the Afghan tribal code of justice. Pashtunwali “is very different from ours (system) and enforcement is not very effective,” said the June 2008 monthly pastoral report.

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Last edited by Magnetonium on May-13-2009 at 01:44