protesters against 'marital rape' spat on and stoned in KabulThe Times [UK]: Women protesting in Kabul against a controversial new law were pelted with stones, jostled and spat on today as they held what is believed to be the first public demonstration calling for equal rights for women in recent Afghan history.
The protest by about 200 women called for amendment of the controversial Shia Family Law, passed last month by the Afghan Parliament, and enforcement of article 22 of the Afghan constitution, which gives equal rights to men and women.
It provoked a furious reaction from local men and a mob quickly surrounded the protesters amid violent scenes close to the Parliament building... As the protesters tried to march to Parliament when were blocked and then surrounded by a second crowd of Afghan men who threatened to overwhelm police. Banners were torn to the ground, women were spat on and stones were thrown.
'I am not afraid. Women have always been oppressed throughout history,' Zara, an 18-year-old student from Kabul told The Times, as men in the crowd surrounding her jostled and screamed abuse. 'This law is against the dignity of women and all the international community opposes it. The US President calls it abhorrent. Don't you see that actually we are the majority?'...
The Age [AU]: Malalai Joya's own battle is against the warlords who, she says, are running the country. These men are former commanders of the various Islamist groups, together known as the mujahideen, who fought and defeated the Soviet Union and communist Afghan government in the 1980s. Soon after coming to power, these groups turned on each other, waging a brutal civil war in which thousands of people were killed, thousands of women and girls raped, and millions were made refugees. The bloodshed only stopped when the Taliban took over.
'Today, because there is no strong central government, Afghanistan is carved up between these same warlords, who have now filled the shoes of the Taliban,' Joya says. 'Afghanistan is once again in the hands of rapists, murderers and extremists.'...
She claims that although liberating women was one of the moral arguments for invading Afghanistan in 2001, the situation for women has continued to deteriorate. 'Ninety per cent of women in Afghanistan suffer from domestic violence, 80 per cent of marriages are forced, and the average life expectancy for women is 44 years.'...
Despite the pressure brought to bear by the world community and while acknowledging the contribution of international forces in Afghanistan, Joya believes the US and other foreign powers are making a mockery of democracy and the liberation of Afghan women by empowering the warlords and fundamentalists...
Although she believes her days are numbered, Joya is not fearful for the future. 'I am not frightened because we will all die one day. What matters is that we fight despite the risk and we sacrifice despite the cost. Only then can we succeed.'
