TheLoop21.com

By: Crystal P. Smith (Add to your loop)
Tue, 08/18/2009 - 00:00

Being an Afghan women often means giving up your basic human rights.

I'd hate to be an Afghan woman. An arranged marriage, no job, having to cook and clean all day, wearing a burka... no thanks.

Now, President Hamid Karzai has passed a law, amid international outcry, giving Shia men permission to starve their wives if they don't give in to his sexual demands. The law also requires women to get permission from their husbands to work and gives fathers and grandfathers exclusive custody of children.

Defenders of the system claim their way of life protects women, but all I see is another instance of using religion to justify heinous acts.

If the Afghan way of life seeks to protect women, then why are their sexual rights — the most important ones — ignored? If a women doesn't have control over her sexuality (and body) she can't develop adequate self-esteem or, more practically, control the number of times she becomes pregnant. How is a women protected if she has to do everything her husband says and has to get permission to work? Work creates independence, which immediately increases self-esteem. It sounds like this law single-handedly destroys that. Sure the divorce rate in Afghanistan is a non-issue due to the fact women have absolutely no rights and are practically sold into marriage, but I'm sure laws like these would raise the divorce rate by the thousands under any other circumstances.

The first version of the law required women to have sex a minimum of every four days and legalized sex within marriage. The new version is better, but still contradicts the Afghan constitution and international treaties signed by the country, according to activists. Women's lives are being put on the chopping block in order to win an election.

People wonder why I care about this, considering I'm an American where things aren't perfect, but where at least women have legal control over their bodies. This issue concerns me because of the extremes in sexist attitudes that exist not only in the Middle East, but right here at home, too. I mean, everyone's up in arms that Michael Vick has been signed to the Eagles after his dogfighting arrest, but no one cares when an athlete beats and terrorizes his wife (hello O.J.), or when a man abandons his kids, leaving the mother to raise them alone (hello Black America).

Yes, Afghanistan requires that men take care of their wives (something we don't care about here), but only if they succumb to their every whim. What makes these women different from sex slaves? Maybe that these husbands don't want to tempt other men with their wives' beauty, so they make them wear full burkas in desert heat. Lucky for them.

Women and girls don't seem to be on the top of anyone's list.