Violence Flares at Protest Over Afghan Sex Law

Musadeq Sadeq / AP

Afghan women carry a banner reading "We want a law, but democratic one," during a march against a new conservative marriage law in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday.

Women hit by stones at rally against law critics say legalizes marital rape
The Associated Press

Wed., April 15, 2009

KABUL - 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.

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 — a clause that critics say legalizes marital rape. It also regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone.

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!" Female police held hands around the group to create a protective barrier.

The government of President Hamid Karzai has said the Shiite family law is being reviewed by the Justice Department and will not be implemented in its current form. Governments and rights groups around the world have condemned the legislation, and President Barack Obama has labeled it "abhorrent."

Foreigners accused of meddling
Though the law would apply only to the country's Shiites — 10 percent to 20 percent of Afghanistan's 30 million people — it has sparked an uproar by activists who say it marks a return to Taliban-style oppression. The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, required women to wear all-covering burqas and banned them from leaving home without a male relative.

Shiite backers of the law say that foreigners are meddling in private Afghan affairs, and Wednesday's demonstrations brought some of the emotions surrounding the debate over the law to the surface.

"You are a dog! You are not a Shiite woman!" one man shouted to a young woman in a headscarf holding aloft a banner that said "We don't want Taliban law." The woman did not shout back at the man, but told him: "This is my land and my people."

Women protesting the law said many of their supporters had been blocked by men who refused to let them join the protest. Those who did make it shouted repeatedly that they were defending human rights by defending women's rights and that the law does not reflect the views of the Shiite community.

'We want our rights'
Fourteen-year-old Masuma Hasani said her whole family had come out to protest the law — both her parents and her younger sister who she held by the arm.

"I am concerned about my future with this law," she said. "We want our rights. We don't want women to just be used."

As the back-and-forth continued, another demonstration of Shiite women who said they support the law began.

"We don't want foreigners interfering in our lives. They are the enemy of Afghanistan," said 24-year-old Mariam Sajadi.

Sajadi is engaged, and said she plans to ask her husband's permission to leave the house as put forth in the law. She said other controversial articles — such as one giving the husband the right to demand sex from his wife every fourth day — have been misinterpreted by Westerners who are anti-Islam.

TOPSHOTS An Afghan Shiite woman, her face covered, listens to a speech by Mohammad Asif Mohseni, a top Shiite cleric, during a press conference in Kabul on April 11, 2009. Afghanistan's top Shiite cleric defended a new law said to oppress women and accused Western critics of the controversial legislation of "cultural invasion" and violating the democracy they introduced. Mohammad Asif Mohseni also rejected a ministry of justice review of the law ordered by President Hamid Karzai, saying any changes would violate a constitutional provision for Shiite's to have their own jurisprudence. 10:35 a.m. ET, 4/11/09

Pakistan Agrees to Islamic Law in Taliban Area

Critics say agreement represents a dangerous surrender to militants

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, right, meets with U.S. Sen. John Kerry in Islamabad on Friday. Kerry held security talks with officials on Monday. Full Article from MSNBC.com - April 13, 2009

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Faisal Alam
alam.faisal@gmail.com

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."
  — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Taliban Execute Couple for Eloping

Taliban execute teenager, man for eloping
Afghan clerics impose death penalty after pair are accused of immoral acts

The Associated Press

Tues., April 14, 2009

KABUL - Taliban gunmen executed a young couple in southern Afghanistan for trying to elope, shooting them with rifles in front of a crowd in a lawless, militant-controlled region, officials said Tuesday.

The woman, 19, and the man, 21, were accused by the militants of immoral acts, and a council of conservative clerics decided that the two should be killed, said Ghulam Dastagir Azad, the governor of the southwestern province of Nimroz.

Riflemen in the remote district of Khash Rod shot the man and woman with AK-47s Monday during a public execution, said Sadiq Chakhansori, the chief of Nimroz' provincial council.

In remote and dangerous regions of Afghanistan, Taliban fighters operate what are sometimes referred to as shadow governments, where militant leaders serve as government officials and run their own police units and pseudo court systems.

The Afghan government has no access to the remote region where the two were shot and killed, said Jabar Pardeli, the provincial police chief of Nimroz.

Harsh social rules

The two fled their homes and hoped to travel to Iran, but their parents sent villagers to bring them home, Chakhansori said. Once back home, the pair was either turned over to the Taliban by their parents or the militants came and took them by force, the officials said, providing slightly varying accounts.

The conservative Taliban movement ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001 and put in place harsh social rules that forbade unmarried men and women to talk or meet in public. Women were not allowed out of their homes without a male relative, and girls couldn't go to school.

Taliban fighters have widened their influence the last three years and now control many remote districts in Afghanistan where there are not enough U.S., NATO or Afghan forces to establish a permanent presence.

Responding to commanders' requests for more troops, President Barack Obama recently announced that the U.S. would send 21,000 more troops to the country this summer to bolster the 38,000 U.S. forces already in the country.

Afghan Law Does Not Allow Rape, Cleric Backer Says (But Starvation is OK)

Ayatollah Mohammed Asef Mohseni

From Reuters - April 16, 2009

By Emma Graham-Harrison

KABUL (Reuters) - A new Afghan law that has drawn Western condemnation for restricting women's rights does not allow marital rape as its critics claim, but lets men refuse to feed wives who deny them sex, the cleric behind it says.

Ayatollah Mohammed Asef Mohseni's Shi'ite personal status law sparked controversy abroad because of a provision that "a wife is obliged to fulfill the sexual desires of her husband."

This was read by some as an open door to marital rape, and together with clauses restricting women's freedom of movement denounced as reminiscent of harsh Taliban-era rules.

The law has been criticized by Western leaders with troops fighting in Afghanistan, including U.S. President Barack Obama, who called it "abhorrent."

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who signed the law last month, has since put it under review.

But Mohseni said the law -- which only applies to the 15 percent of Afghans who are Shi'a Muslims -- has been misinterpreted by critics. Its sexual clauses aimed only to ensure men's sexual needs were met within marriage, because Islam prohibited them seeking satisfaction with other women.

"Why should a man and woman get married if there is no need for a sexual relationship? Then they are like brother and sister," he told Reuters in an interview in his recently built central Kabul mosque and university complex.

A man and wife can negotiate how often it is reasonable to sleep together, based on his sex drive, and a woman has a right to refuse if she has a good reason, said the bearded cleric.

"It should not be compulsory for the wife to say yes all the time, because some men have more sexual desires than others," he said, adding that husbands should never force themselves on their wives and the law does not sanction that.

But women do have a duty to meet their husband's needs.

"If a woman says no, the man has the right not to feed her," Mohseni said. The law allows women to work, so they could theoretically refuse sex and support themselves, but in mainly rural Afghanistan most women are dependent on husbands.

The law is milder than the severe restrictions imposed by the Sunni Muslim Taliban, who banned all women and girls from any work or study, and from leaving the home without a male relative. But opponents still consider it a step backwards.

They also want to strike down a provision that says women can leave their home freely for work, education or medical care, but otherwise require their husband's permission to go out.

Mohseni said this was not a final word -- if women want more freedom of movement, they can ask for it to be included in their marriage contract: "If he says no, she can marry someone else."

But in Afghanistan most marriages are arranged and women's low social status would make it hard for most to refuse a union.

MAKE-UP ON DEMAND

Another measure in the law described as demeaning by rights groups is a requirement that women wear makeup if their husbands wish. The soft-spoken cleric said this was to protect relationships.

"When men venture outside they see lots of other women with makeup, but he comes home and finds his own wife with a dirty face," Mohseni said.

"This is mentioned to encourage men to have more interest in a social and personal life with his wife."

Opponents of the law say it codifies traditional practices that are in fact not required by Islam.

Qazimiya Muhaqaq, professor of Political Science at Katib University and one of a group of women involved in a street demonstration against the law this week, told a news conference on Thursday the law makes women bow to their husbands.

"A woman and man must satisfy each other, it's natural, they are in a relationship. But this law states that whenever a man wants, the woman is obliged to satisfy her husband," she said.

Reuters asked Mohseni several times if he could detail the religious reasons for restricting women's movements, and requiring them to wear makeup, but he did not provide them.

Mohseni has been closely following the international debate about the law, condemning NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer for his criticism and saying U.S. President Barack Obama had spoken in ignorance when he called it "abhorrent."

The cleric had hoped that after speaking about the law last week its critics would seek him out to get a better understanding of its contents, but said he was disappointed by them.

"After my press conference I was expecting a delegation from the West to come and meet me but they are just playing politics." "Without proper reading people make their own opinions about the law, which I really regret," he added.

Istanbul's First Female Mosque Designer

Among the dozens of mosques in Istanbul stands a radical exception.

It is not only different in design but is also the first to be designed by a woman.

Known for designing hotels and bars, Zeynep Fadillioglu said she wanted to create something contemporary.

She spoke to the BBC's Sarah Rainsford as they walked through the building.

Heavy Metal Islam: Banned Rock Bands Come to Austin, TX

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

April 15: Musicians, from a variety of foreign countries, who are not allowed to play rock music in their home countries, because it has been deemed too political or too provocative in some way, can play here in the United States. As NBC's Amna Nawaz reports from a musical festival in Texas, band members, they are grateful to be able to play without static.

Video: Violence Flares at Protest Over Afghan Sex Law

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Picture of the Week: Islam's Soft Revolution

Olivia Arthur / Magnum for TIME

Stylish
Hala dons a pink hijab for a date on Valentine's Day. Muslim women's attitudes about the appropriate amount of make-up to wear and the proper amount of hair to reveal vary widely.

Related Article.

Afghan Women Protest New Restrictive Law

Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images for The New York Times

About 300 Afghan women, facing an angry throng three times that number, walked the streets of the capital on Wednesday 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.

From the NY Times.

April 16, 2009

Afghan Women Protest New Restrictive Law

By DEXTER FILKINS

KABUL, Afghanistan — The young women stepped off the bus and moved toward the protest march just beginning on the other side of the street when they were spotted by a mob of men.

"Get out of here, you whores!" the men shouted. "Get out!"

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!"

But the march carried on anyway. About 300 Afghan women, facing an angry throng three times larger than their own, walked the streets of the capital on Wednesday 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.

It was an extraordinary scene. Women are mostly illiterate in this impoverished country, and they do not, generally speaking, enjoy anything near the freedom accorded to men. But there they were, most of them young, many in jeans, defying a threatening crowd and calling out slogans heavy with meaning.

With the Afghan police keeping the mob at bay, the women walked two miles to Parliament, where they delivered a petition calling for the law's repeal.

"Whenever a man wants sex, we cannot refuse," said Fatima Husseini, 26, one of the marchers. "It means a woman is a kind of property, to be used by the man in any way that he wants."

The law, approved by both houses of Parliament and signed by President Hamid Karzai, applies to the Shiite minority only, essentially giving clerics authority over intimate matters between women and men. Women here and governments and rights groups abroad have protested three parts of the law especially.

One provision makes it illegal for a woman to resist her husband's sexual advances. A second provision requires a husband's permission for a woman to work outside the home or go to school. And a third makes it illegal for a woman to refuse to "make herself up" or "dress up" if that is what her husband wants.

The passage of the law has amounted to something of a historical irony. Afghan Shiites, who make up about 10 percent of the population, suffered horrendously under the Taliban, who regarded them as apostates. Since 2001, the Shiites, particularly the Hazara minority, have been enjoying a renaissance.

President Karzai, who relies on vast support from the United States and other Western governments to stay in power, has come under intense international criticism for signing the bill into law. Many people here suspect that he did so in order to gain the favor of the Shiite clergy; Mr. Karzai is up for re-election this year.

Responding to the outcry, Mr. Karzai has begun looking for a way to remove the most controversial parts of the law. In an interview on Wednesday, his spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, said that the legislation was not yet law because it had not been published in the government's official register. That, Mr. Hamidzada said, meant that it could still be changed. Mr. Karzai has asked his justice minister to look it over.

"We have no doubt that whatever comes out of this process will be consistent with the rights provided for in the Constitution — equality and the protection of women," Mr. Hamidzada said.

The women who protested Wednesday began their demonstration with what appeared to be a deliberately provocative act. They gathered in front of the School of the Last Prophet, a madrassa run by Ayatollah Asif Mohsini, the country's most powerful Shiite cleric. He and the scholars around him played an important role in the drafting of the new law.

"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.

Afterward, when the demonstrators had left, one of the madrassa's senior clerics walked outside. Asked about the dispute, he said it was between professionals and nonprofessionals; that is, between the clerics, who understood the Koran and Islamic law, and the women calling for the law's repeal who did not.

"It's like if you are sick, you go to a doctor, not some amateur," said the cleric, Mohammed Hussein Jafaari. "This law was approved by the scholars. It was passed by both houses of Parliament. It was signed by the president."

The religious scholars, Mr. Jafaari conceded, were all men.

Lingering a while, Mr. Jafaari said that what was really driving the dispute was not the Afghans at all, but the foreigners who loom so large over the country.

"We Afghans don't want a bunch of NATO commanders and foreign ministers telling us what to do."

Editorial: Killing of Gay Iraqis Shouldn't Be Ignored

From the Denver Post - April 12, 2009

Editorial

Killing of gay Iraqis shouldn't be ignored

We applaud Rep. Jared Polis for his efforts last week to shine the spotlight on the killings of homosexuals in Iraq.

By The Denver Post

Posted: 04/12/2009

The U.S. State Department must not stand idly by if the Iraqi government fails to protect basic human rights, even if the persecution stems from traditional cultural or religious beliefs.

We applaud Colorado Congressman Jared Polis for his efforts last week to shine the spotlight on the killings of homosexuals in Iraq, and to press the State Department to demand accountability from the Iraqi government.

The first openly gay man to be elected to the House, Polis has been investigating the treatment of gays in Iraq for several months, according to The Post's Michael Riley. His research led to the discovery of a transgender Iraqi man who told the congressman he had been arrested, beaten and raped by security forces with Iraq's Ministry of Interior.

Human-rights groups have passed information to Polis that claims another man was beaten into confessing he belonged to a gay-rights group and that the man had been sentenced to execution by an Iraqi court.

Polis, who toured Iraq last week, passed along a letter outlining his grim findings to State Department officials in Baghdad. He told Riley: "We will see whether the Iraqi government is serious about protecting the human rights of all Iraqis, and we can also see what role our own State Department can play in helping to protect this minority in Iraq."

The New York Times reported last week that the killings of gays had escalated. The paper reported a 2005 decree by the influential Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani that called for gays and lesbians to be killed "in the worst, most severe way of killing."

In the past two months, at least 25 men and boys were killed, usually by multiple gunshots, their bodies often left with signs in Arabic that declared: "pervert."

Meanwhile, Iraqis are murdered for many reasons, greatly complicating the situation on the ground. It's hard to imagine the country will have much stability or peace if it can't quell such things as religious killings and the so-called "honor killings" of women who may have had extramarital relations.

And, obviously, the freshman Colorado congressman's impact on such things is greatly limited.

But because of his position as an openly gay Democratic representative serving while his party controls Washington, Polis has a unique opportunity to press the issue. We hope he continues to encourage the State Department to act, and continues to talk about these issues often relegated to the shadows.

We realize our nation has its own issues to worry about when it comes to treatment of gays and lesbians. But we've lost and risked far too many of our troops to help establish and protect Iraq's new government to stand by and watch Iraqis, especially if their government is involved, murder their own in blatant defiance of basic human rights.

 

CHRISTOPHE SIMON /AFP /GETTY IMAGES
Baghdad, scene of attacks on homosexuals. Ali Hili, a spokesman for gay men in Iraq says: 'It is impossible to be gay and out. It is the most difficult thing to be in the country'

From the Independent in the UK - April 13, 2009

Iraqi leaders attacked over spate of homophobic murders

Dozens of young men and boys killed by death squads in Baghdad

By Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor

Iraqi leaders are accused of turning a blind eye to a spate of murders of homosexuals after 25 young men and boys were killed in recent weeks.

Gay groups claim the Iraqi government is giving tacit support to the death squads targeting young homosexuals who venture outdoors.

In an unusual move, Amnesty International will today write to the Iraqi President, Nouri al-Maliki, demanding "urgent and concerted action" by his government to stop the killings. Amnesty said the murders appear to have been carried out by militiamen and relatives of the victims, after being incited by religious leaders. Homosexuality has always been taboo in the country, but a surge of killings followed religious leaders' sermons condemning "deviancy".

The violence came after the improved security situation briefly encouraged some gay men to start meeting discreetly in public. This led to furious condemnation from clerics who have called for homosexuality – which can lead to a prison sentence of seven years – to be eradicated from Iraqi society.

Most of the killings have taken place in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, controlled by ultra-conservative Shi'ite militia. Murders have also been reported in Basra, Najaf and Karbala.

The bodies of four gay men, each bearing a sign with the Arabic word for "pervert" on their chests, were discovered in Sadr City three weeks ago. Following the discovery of another two corpses six days later, an unnamed official in the city told Reuters: "They were sexual deviants. Their tribes killed them to restore their family honour."

No arrests have been made. Ali Hili, the London spokesman for Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) said it had received reports of at least 63 killings in the last four months. He told The Independent: "Since mid-December we've been getting lots of reports about mass arrests and raids on houses, cafes, barbers shops." He claimed police and the Ministry of the Interior were behind some of the murders.

"Most of the people who are arrested are found dead, with signs of torture and burns. We believe a war has been launched by the Iraqi Government and its establishment against gay people."

Mr Hili said homosexuals in the country were forced to live in hiding for fear of abduction and death. Some had managed to escape to the west, with another 20 preparing to flee Iraq.

He said: "It's impossible to be gay and out ... It's the most difficult thing to be in Iraq. People visit each other's houses, they meet in places where it's safe ... for the most effeminate cases, we advise them not to go out at all."

Amnesty's letter to Mr Al-Maliki protests over his government's failure to condemn the killings publicly or to investigate the murders adequately. It also points to statements by police which appear to condone, or even encourage, the targeting of gay men, and calls for officers who incite homophobic attacks to be "held to account and either prosecuted or disciplined and removed from office".

Niall Couper, a spokesperson from Amnesty International, said: "The gay community in Iraq deserves protection and that means their leaders needs to stand up for them. Amnesty International is calling on Nouri al-Maliki to condemn all attacks on members of the gay community, publicly, unreservedly and in the strongest terms possible."

The letter reminds the Iraqi government that it is bound by international treaties stipulating "all human beings are equal in dignity and rights".

Hasan: Our optimism after the fall of Saddam has turned to despair

Comment

My boyfriend was killed by the police because of his sexuality. Policemen came to his house, 10 minutes away from mine, put him in a police car, arrested and killed him. They told his parents it was because of his job. He was working for Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender). For six months I didn't go out, I didn't do anything – just grieved for him. He was killed because of who he is.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, we – the gay community – were very optimistic. We thought that we would live in a democracy and felt safe with US troops around. So we started to print leaflets that promoted freedom for gay and lesbian people.

But members of our group started being arrested for it. The leaflets weren't political, they were just spreading gay rights.

We have the right to exist and be who we are, but this offended the government. The leaflets had our email addresses and telephone numbers, so the government and the militias came to find out who was distributing the leaflets.

In 2004, the situation got much worse. People began to be killed in the streets, burnt alive and mutilated for being gay. We were a target for the government and militias. I fled to the UK; I feel very safe here but get emails every day about more killings in Iraq. And the problem is that the UK Government doesn't allow us to stay with refugee status even though Iraq is one of the most dangerous places on earth for homosexuals and a war is being waged by the parts of the Iraqi government on gay people. In the UK, I can't work or study because I've been denied the right to asylum, but my only option is to go back to Iraq, face my family and my community and be killed.

Four members of our organisation have already been deported. I am fighting for my right to stay by re-applying for asylum with the help of Iraqi LGBT. Otherwise, I have no future. On Thursday, we will protest outside the Home Office to highlight the homophobic killings. I wish someone would listen and help us; this has been going on in Iraq for years and no one cares.

Hasan, 26, is gay. He moved to the UK nine months ago from his home in Babel province, south of Baghdad, after receiving death threats. His boyfriend was killed because of his sexuality.

Iraqi Leaders 'Ignoring Murder of Homosexuals'

From the Telegraph (UK)

Iraq's leaders have been accused of ignoring a wave of violence against homosexual men.

13 Apr 2009

In recent weeks, 25 young men and boys have been killed in the country and gay rights groups claim the government has given tacit support to the death squads by staying silent on the crimes.

The lack of action by the authorities has prompted Amnesty International to the Iraqi President, Nouri al-Maliki, demanding "urgent and concerted action" by his government to stop the killings, according to the Independent. The majority of the deadly attacks have taken place in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, controlled by ultra-conservative Shia militia.

The bodies of four gay men, each bearing a sign with the Arabic word for "pervert" on their chests, were discovered in Sadr City three weeks ago. No arrests have been made.

Amnesty said the murders appeared to have been committed by militiamen and relatives of the victims, who had been incited by religious leaders who condemned 'deviancy'.

Homosexuality, which carried a prison sentence in Iraq, has always been a taboo in the country, but the improved security situation recently meant some gay men could start meeting discreetly in public.

However, this sparked strong condemnation from clerics who have called for homosexuality to be eradicated from Iraqi society, the paper said.

Ali Hili, the London spokesman for Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) said it had received reports of at least 63 killings in the last four months. He told The Independent: "Since mid-December we've been getting lots of reports about mass arrests and raids on houses, cafes, barbers shops." He also claimed police and the Ministry of the Interior were behind some of the murders.

"Most of the people who are arrested are found dead, with signs of torture and burns. We believe a war has been launched by the Iraqi Government and its establishment against gay people."

Fears Over Iraq Gay Killing Spate

From the BBC - April 13, 2009

The Iraqi government must do more to protect homosexuals in the wake of a reported spate of killings of gay young men, Amnesty International has urged.

In the last few weeks, 25 boys and men are reported to have been killed in Baghdad because they were, or were perceived to be, gay, Amnesty said.

In a letter to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, the rights organisation called for "urgent and concerted action".

It also criticised the government's failure to condemn the killings.

'Corpses found'

The recent killings are said to have been carried out by armed Shia militiamen as well as by members of the tribes and families of the victims, Amnesty said.

It cited reports that three corpses of gay men were found in the Shia area of Sadr City last week - two of which were reported to have had pieces of paper bearing the word "pervert" attached to them.

The letter also raised concerns that religious leaders may be inciting violence against members of Iraq's gay community, and over reported statements by one senior police officer that appear to condone or even encourage the targeting of gay Iraqis.

Amnesty called on the government to bring those responsible for the killings to justice and to afford effective protection to the gay community in Iraq.