KABUL – A new Afghan law makes it legal for men to rape their wives, human rights groups and some Afghan lawmakers said Thursday, accusing President Hamid Karzai of signing the legislation to bolster his re-election prospects. Critics worry the legislation undermines hard-won rights for women enacted after the fall of the Taliban's strict Islamist regime.
The law — which some lawmakers say was never debated in parliament — is intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan's Shiite community, which makes up about 20 percent of this country of 30 million people. The law does not affect Afghan Sunnis.
One of the most controversial articles stipulates the wife "is bound to preen for her husband as and when he desires."
Canada expresses outrage over Afghan women's law
This pretty much sums it up. :angryfire:
'To bolster his re-election prospects.'
It wold seem democracy is not what it's cutout to be. Many in the West erroneously perceive democracy as the panacea for every ill in society, when in fact it is nothing more than a reflection of the will of the majority, for better of for worse.
Now I thought we'd originally gone to Afghanistan to capture Bin Laden. But hey, what's in a lie if it gets us what we want, which was obviosly nation-building.
But now, we find ourselves in a bind. Once we'd got bored with the Bin Laden story, we'd shifted to fighting for democracy. Now, Canadian politicians are reeling from this and proclaiming that they're there to fight for equality of the sexes. Clearly this legislation suggests that Afghan politicians believe this law to be a vote-getter, ad thus democratic. So now we find ourselves in a bind, having to decide whether to fight for democracy or justice? The two are now at odds and putting our own worldview into question.
So now the question is, if democracy conflicts with justice, which ought we to sacrifice, and which defend? For a society that worships democracy, yet still concedes the importance of justice, it's a tough decision to make. But if we have any sense of justice, we'll acknowledge that democracy is a man-made and culture-laden institution that does not always reflect justice and which is not always appropriate for all societies. Let's just look at Afghanistan, where a democratic regime woud be more extremist than the government they have now. Let's consider China, where some of the population is more eager tofight Taiwan than the government is.
We might soon find ourselves at a cross-roads in our international diplomacy, having to acknowledge that democracy is a reflection not necessarily of justice, but rather, for good or ill, the will of the people, and must always take second-place to justice. Such a shift would have implications for our relationships with governments from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
In fact, such a shift could have implications in our own democracy, whereby the will of the people could be recognized as not always being just, sometimes merely promoting the interests of Canada's majority ethnic communities at the expense of smaller somes, irrespective of the justice.
