http://www.smh.com.au/world/womens-hefty-price-for-crimes-20120329-1w0y8.html#ixzz1qgQd4D1y Women's hefty price for 'crimes' Rod Nordland, Kabul March 30, 2012 a.. ASMA W, 36, ran away from her husband after he beat her, threw boiling water on her, gave her a sexually transmitted disease and announced he would marry his mistress.
Fawzia, 15, took refuge with a family that drugged her and forced her into prostitution. Farah G, 16, fell in love with her friend's brother and eloped with him. All of these females were jailed, joining hundreds of imprisoned Afghan women convicted of so-called moral crimes, often based on the testimony of their own abusers. They were among case studies cited in a report by Human Rights Watch, which interviewed 58 women and girls in prison and found that more than half were there for acts that in most countries would not be considered crimes. The group said Afghanistan's model new legislation to protect women, the Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which President Hamid Karzai enacted in 2009, had done little to end traditional practices such as baad - giving away daughters to settle family scores - as well as forced and under-age marriages, and violent abuse by close relatives. ''While the women and girls who flee abuse often end up incarcerated, the men responsible for the domestic violence and forced marriages causing flight almost always enjoy impunity from prosecution,'' the report said. Human Rights Watch pointed to Mr Karzai's mixed record on women's rights. Early this month he issued a decree that women who flee their homes to marry someone of their own choosing should be pardoned, but has also signed a declaration by the country's highest religious authority, the Ulema Council, which has alarmed women's rights advocates. Ulema said women were secondary to men, should never travel without male chaperones and should not work or study if it meant mixing with men. The report said: ''Ten years after the fall of Taliban rule, abuses against women and girls are widespread, and redress limited or non-existent.'' NEW YORK TIMES Read more: [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
