President Obama recently labeled the new Afghani law that would legalize marital rape referred to in the first item below as “abhorrent”, not to be confused with the supposed potential of terrorism against the United States that is our stated reason for the continued U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. This is not an adequate response in the face of the unrelenting war against women. Until the following recent events are labeled what they are, namely patriarchal acts of terror, we cannot have a realistic strategy in Afghanistan.
1. A group of some 1,000 Afghans swarmed a demonstration of 300 women protesting against a new conservative marriage law on Wednesday. The women were pelted with small stones as police struggled to keep the two groups apart.Women’s rights activists scheduled a protest Wednesday attended by mostly young women. But the group was swamped by counter-protesters — both men and women — who shouted down the women’s chants.
Some picked up gravel and stones and threw them at the women, while others shouted “Death to the slaves of the Christians!”
2. Taliban militants publicly executed a man and girl on Monday for eloping when she was already engaged to marry someone else, an official said, in a sign of the grip the Islamists have over parts of Afghanistan.Hashim Noorzai, head of Khash Rud district in southwestern Nimruz province, said the two were executed by gun shots in front of a crowd of villagers.
3. A female provincial official known for fighting for women’s rights was gunned down in southern Afghanistan yesterday, following a day of fighting in the region that left 22 militants dead, officials said.
A Taliban spokesperson, Qari Yousef Ahmedi, claimed responsibility for the attack.
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