Critics: Afghan 'Home Rape' Law Worse Than Taliban

(NEWSER) - Pressure from British and German leaders over legalized rape in Afghanistan has pushed President Hamid Karzai to order a review of a law governing Shiites, Reuters reports. Karzai said the Justice Ministry would scrutinize the Shiite Personal Status Law and send it back to parliament if necessary. But he said Western officials had misunderstood the law, which has been approved but not enacted. More»

Afghan prez says he hadn't been aware law was on the books

(NEWSER) - Afghanistan will revise a law that critics say legalizes marital rape, President Hamid Karzai tells CNN. Karzai said he was unaware of the provision, part of a 270-page piece of legislation covering the country's 6 million Shiite Muslims. "Now I have instructed, in consultation with clergy of the country, that the law be revised and any article that is not in keeping with the Afghan constitution and Islamic Sharia must be removed from this law," he said. More»

Karzai government not making progress, rights groups says

(NEWSER) - More than a decade after the Taliban regime was ousted, Afghanistan is still imprisoning hundreds of women for "moral crimes" like running away from their husbands, according to Human Rights Watch. The group interviewed scores of women in Afghan prisons, and found that many were there because they had attempted to flee abusive relationships or forced marriages, AP reports. Adultery is a crime in Afghanistan, and the women were often assumed to have cheated on their husbands. More»

He's at large, mom who aided him busted: cops

(NEWSER) - An Afghan militiaman strangled his wife for giving birth to a third daughter instead of a son, according to law enforcement authorities. The 28-year-old victim was killed in her home in the northern province of Kunduz by her husband and his mother just three months after the woman had the baby, reports the Guardian . The victim's mother-in-law has been arrested, but the husband has fled. It's uncertain who will care for the couple's daughters. Two months ago, attackers in the same province poured acid over parents and three children after the parents refused to hand over their young daughter in marriage. The rejected suitor has been arrested. More»

Now Gulnaz faces chilling future with her attacker

(NEWSER) - A 19-year-old Afghan woman imprisoned for more than two years after she reported being raped by a relative is finally set to be freed—because she has agreed to marry her rapist, reports the Guardian . The woman, Gulnaz, who is the subject of a censored documentary, has resisted until now the pressure to marry her attacker, who may end up killing her because of his "humiliation," reports the New York Times . But the presidential palace announced last night that Gulnaz has agreed to become her attacker's second wife. "She feels like she has no other option than to marry him," said British filmmaker Clementine Malpas. "I know she wants honor, and I also know she doesn't want to marry this man. And of course I am worried about what the future holds for her because of this decision." More»