A brilliant new law in Afganistan

[Brown, Jon Brow]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8204207.stm

An Afghan bill allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex has been published in the official gazette and become law.

The original version obliged Shia women to have sex with their husbands every four days at a minimum, and it effectively condoned rape by removing the need for consent to sex within marriage.

Are we in the 21st century? This is beyond belief.

So what is the point of our troops doing over there fighting the Tele-Ban when the regime that is already in charge is just as sick?

[TheFamousEccles]

No point. No point at all. I support soldiers in general - anyone who voluntarily joins up knowing they could be very much in harms way deserves respect - but I am sure many of them are wandering themselves WTF they are doing there. And laws like this example would seem to exacerbate this. What a world....

[Donney]

It is unbelievable how some people might find that fair or logical.

[Mark]

Surprisingly the right for a man to force his wife to have sex with him was only removed from UK law in the mid-90's.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Surprisingly the right for a man to force his wife to have sex with him was only removed from UK law in the mid-90's.

1890s?

[Mark]

1890s?

No, I remember John Major bringing it in.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

No, I remember John Major bringing it in.

Well I suppose that makes sense. He had Edwina Currie for his needs

[Easy Drifter]

This sort of thinking is showing up in the West with the number of 'Honour' killings with immigrants from the Far East.
We have case now where it is alleged the father, son and mother of 3 Afghan young girls and their 'Aunt' were murdered by driving a car into a canal. The 'aunt' turns out to have been the husband's first and other wife. One of the girls had secretly wed and all 3 plus, I gather the 'Aunt', were adopting western clothes and ways against the father's wishes.
This is not the first case and it is also happening with people from Pakistan, India and other eastern countries.
Certainly conflicts with Western thinking but that is the way they were brought up. The younger people, sometime born in the West or at least having gone to school here are rebelling.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Well...Canada is out of there in 2011, and I think we did out best, the Americans are doing their best, the UK and the Netherlands are doing their best, but Afghanistan seems to be constantly trying to find ways to justify their being stuck in the 14th century. What is more, is there people in that part of the world that blame the west for it.

At least as long as we at there, punks like Bin Laden are not out in the open putting together a terrorist army....but bringing Afganistan into a modern world? It doesn't seem possible does it?

[Jag_Warrior]

So what is the point of our troops doing over there fighting the Tele-Ban when the regime that is already in charge is just as sick?

IMO, our mission should be focused on eliminating the Taliban as a military and terrorist threat - that's all. While I don't agree with this law, it's their law... and their business.

Rape laws (and most other laws) here are different from state to state. Where I live, there was no such thing as marital rape until the late 1970's/early 1980's. And even then, I remember there being a big debate about it.

But short of a real and genuine (*cough cough* listen up, Bush/Cheney) threat, I'm all for staying out of how other countries and societies conduct their affairs, unless it turns to genocide or something like that.