Legalised Rape in Marriage

I just read a news article that made me sad and horrified. This piece says that the Afghan President assented to a bill that the UN says legalises rape within marriage, see link below (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/31/hamid-karzai-afghanistan-law)

what a sad day for women all over the world who have been fighting effortlessly for women's and human rights all over the world. This is a major setback. Sexually Based Gender Violence is has been linked to the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in most countries.

For me this law has reduced women to slaves, slaves who cannot access basic health, education and other amenities without the consent of their husband; these women will be sexual slaves who the spouses can abuse anytime they want to.

These women, majority of whom have endured war and terrorism for many years now face increased hunger and poverty because some INGO have no funding and might pull out of the country. These women live in a country that perharps has the worst living conditions for a woman to survive in. And now they have been officially declared as slaves. Whatever happened to marriage being a love partnership!

Tell me my fellow women..is my reaction to this article too strong! Maybe as a journalist I am not being objective. So prove me wrong, if there is any woman out there who sees sense in this law and defends it please react to this comment!

If you are like me and you are angry at this story, DONT KEEP QUITE. Add your voice to this because I believe it can make a difference.We must condemn this. We have to stand in solidarity with the women of Afghanistan and other places in the world where women are abused

Give me your thoughts on this important matter!!!

'Worse than the Taliban' - new law rolls back rights for Afghan women / the Guardian

Hamid Karzai has been accused of trying to win votes in Afghanistan's presidential election by backing a law the UN says legalises rape within marriage and bans wives from stepping outside their homes without their husbands' permission.

The Afghan president signed the law earlier this month, despite condemnation by human rights activists and some MPs that it flouts the constitution's equal rights provisions.