Tackling the New "Rape" Law

Post by Bri Roozen

After checking the news this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see that our President is currently visiting troops in Iraq.  However, as I continued reading about his surprise visit to the Middle Eastern country, I also learned he has no plans of stopping in Afghanistan.  Now I know the president is busy and all, but due to the recent rape law passed in Afghanistan, one would hope that the president would be a little more forthright.  

This new law was put into effect by the new Afghanistan government (that's the government we put in place) and it basically gives an Afghani man permission to strip his wife of basic human rights such as being able to leave the house and declining to have intercourse.  To put it in layman's terms, Afghani women have less rights than that of an animal.  To make the situation even worse, many of these Afghani 'wives' are little more than children, allowing in the further abuse of women and children in the Middle Eastern world.  What is Afghanistan's current defense to the passing of this law? "Most members of the parliament did not know what they were going to vote for" a woman member of the Afghani parliament, Koofi, said.  "Even some of my friends... voted in favor without knowing what happened."  Is this supposed to instill confidence in us?  To know that the Afghani parliament is unknowingly voting through laws that violate some of the most basic human rights?  President Obama called the new law abhorrent, and let it be known that the current administration opposes the law.  Perhaps if the President could take a little side trip from Iraq and put the pressure on Afghanistan to revoke the law now, maybe the women of Afghanistan could be treated like people again, before too much damage is done.