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Afghanistan president says controversial law restricting women's rights under review

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Afghan President Hamid Karzai told reporters Monday that the controversial Shi'ite personal status law, which limits women's rights, is being amended by the country's Justice Ministry. Monday's statement at a press conference with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown came one day after Karzai told female members of parliament and human rights advocates that he would amend the law in an effort to align its more controversial provisions with international standards of human rights. During the meeting, Karzai reportedly said that when he signed the law last month, he did so without realizing the effects it would have on the lives of the country's Shi'ite women because the law was 239 pages in length and was written in an esoteric theological language. The law, which has not yet been published, has received a great deal of local and international criticism for allegedly condoning marital rape, setting the minimum marital age for females at nine years old, denying rights of spousal inheritance to widows, and otherwise limiting the freedom of Shi'ite women in Afghanistan. Key Shi'ite cleric Mohammad Asif Mohsseni defended the law earlier this month, chastising Western critics for interfering with Afghan democracy. Less than a week later, approximately 300 Afghan women protested the law in front of the mosque run by Mohsenni in response to his endorsement. Fierce international criticism of the law's more controversial provisions prompted Karzai's decision to suspend the law and to submit it to the Ministry of Justice for review earlier this month. His decision to sign the law was one of several actions that Karzai has been criticized for since his appointment as Afghanistan's interim president in 2002. In early March, the UN reported that the human rights situation in Afghanistan is worsening, one week after a similar US report rebuked Afghanistan for, among other problems, continued use of child labor. In November, the UN urged Afghanistan to discontinue use of the death penalty, which Karzai had reinstated following a four-year moratorium. In April 2008, the Taliban attempted to assassinate Karzai during a military parade, the third attempt on his life since 2001.VOTE FOR JURIST JURIST is nominated for a 2009 Webby Award as best Law website. Please vote for us here!

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 27, 2009 (boomark / email).