According to the London Independent newspaper, “President Hamid Karzai has backed guidelines issued by Afghanistan’s religious council that relegate women to the position of second-class citizens.”
The 150-member Ulema Council said that “Men are fundamental and women are secondary” and that “men and women should not mix in work or education, and that women must have a male guardian when they travel.”
These kinds of attitudes go away beyond run-of-the-mill sexism and male chauvinism. Only those with a truly medieval mindset could ever sign on to such sentiments.
This comes on the heels of a ghastly NPR report yesterday on how women in the Afghan police force are routinely sexually coerced, abused, raped, and even forced into prostitution by their fellow recruits and officers.
These religious fanatics are doing more to destroy Islam than any atheists could dream of doing with their words or cartoonists with their drawings.
This comes on the heels of a ghastly NPR report yesterday on how women in the Afghan police force are routinely sexually coerced, abused, raped, and even forced into prostitution by their fellow recruits and officers.
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At least they are praying five times a day; I am sure they are forgiven. Sticking to the procedural requirements set down by the adherents of a Bronze Age religion is more important than the voice of conscience.
Reads like a Rick Santorum speech.
The difference between Islamic fundamentalists and Christian fundamentalists is not one of substance but minor detail.
So that’s what we spent billions of dollars for …
Why is he kowtowing to a ulema council? Didn’t we go there to liberate the Afghans from that sort of thing? Or has the story changed now?
Afghanistan sounds like a teabagger’s paradise -- all the sex you want with none of the responsibility or consequences. And sandwiches whenever you want, since the woman can never leave the house.
If you think I’m being facetious, just look at the ridiculous “laws” being promoted in Kansas, Texas, Virginia and elsewhere. The wingnuts in the US would enact their own form of sharia law if they could get away with it.
@sunny says
Afghanistan woman are ridiculously oppressed, this has always been the case in these type of middle east countries, have you ever noticed that places were women are abused like this have the most violent earthquakes? with the most deaths, I am not going to say something crazy that this is the wrath of God,but it makes you think…