Asian Window

Jerome Starkey from Bamiyan in the Independent:

An Afghan law which legalised rape has been sent back to parliament with a clause letting husbands starve their wives if they refuse to have sex.

President Hamid Karzai ordered a review of the legislation after The Independent revealed that it negated the need for consent within marriage.

President Barack Obama described it as “abhorrent”, Gordon Brown said Britain would “not tolerate” it, and other Nato countries threatened to withdraw their troops unless the legislation was drastically re-written.

The amendments were passed to the cabinet this week and signed by Mr Karzai on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said last night.

The women’s rights activist Wazhma Frough, who was involved in the review, said that conservative religious leaders had pressured the Justice Ministry to keep many of the most controversial clauses. More:

Click here for Human Rights Watch.

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