by Damozel | Three hundred amazingly courageous Afghan women marched through "an angry throng three times larger than their own" to the Parliament "to demand that Parliament repeal a new law that introduces a range of Taliban-like restrictions on women, and permits, among other things, marital rape." (NYT)
The women scattered as the men moved in.
“We want our rights!” one of the women shouted, turning to face them. “We want equality!”
The women ran to the bus and dove inside as it rumbled away, with the men smashing the taillights and banging on the sides.
“Whores!”As Taylor Marsh says, "This is as in your face as you can get in Afghanistan."
If you want to see real courage in action, then how about this?
“We are here to campaign for our rights,” one woman said into a loudspeaker. Then the women held their banners aloft and began to chant.
The reaction was immediate. Hundreds of students from the madrassa, most but not all of them men, poured into the streets to confront the demonstrators.
“Death to the enemies of Islam!” the counterdemonstrators cried, encircling the women. “We want Islamic law!”
The women stared ahead and kept walking.
A phalanx of police, some of them women, held the crowds apart.
At The Guardian, Jon Boone -- from Kabul -- explains:
News that the law, which only affects Afghanistan's Shia minority, had been quietly passed by President Hamid Karzai last month, prompted international fury when the Guardian revealed details of legislation that the US president, Barack Obama, described as "abhorrent"....
A statement by the group of civil rights groups who organised the rally said it had been called to protest against a law that "insults dignity of women as fellow human beings and increases ethnocentrism and inequality".
It said the law contradicted equal rights provisions in the constitution and demanded the scrapping of articles that give husbands the right to have sex with their wives whenever they chose, except during times when they are ill or menstruating.
At The Washington Independent, Spencer Ackerman says:
What have you done recently that’s half as brave? (emphasis added)
Taylor Marsh again:
Their lives are at stake, so the bravery of the women of Afghanistan who protested Karzai’s rape law really is stunning. By confronting the most powerful Shiite cleric in their country, not only have they made sure their voices are heard, but they’ve moved Afghanistan another step away from the Dark Ages.
Only 10% of the population by most accounts, Shiite women in Afghanistan have a long way to go, with many of their sisters oblivious to women’s rights. As much as the Taliban hate the Shiites, you can only imagine the special intensity for Shiite women who act up, shall we say.
I can only hope that with the eyes of the world on them, these women will get through this unscathed. I can't even bear to imagine what it must be like to be in their burkhas.
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