Afghan government takes a step back into the stone age.

Unbelievably shocking to hear Afghanistan has passed a bill that will allow men to have forceful sex with their wives. A forceful sex is when a wife says no and the man nonetheless goes ahead with it. It is also known as marital rape. It has been many years since the Taliban have been toppled and the government replaced by US backed President Karzai. Now what does America have to say about the person they have backed, is the one who allowed the bill to be passed? It is a controversial bill that has undoubtedly captured the attention of human rights groups. It was after an international outcry that the government decided to "look into the matter".

Some claim this law was hurriedly passed to win crucial election votes from a particular minority Shia group, even though this law doesn't extend to Sunni group. Afghanistan Ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad was on a rather defensive note, appealing to the international community to have some patience while the country deals gingerly with its newfound democracy. He further elaborated that Afghanistan women have come a long way and that they no longer are oppressed. There are women representative in Parliament, holding 89 seats out of 351 and run businesses too. Okay, so what is this marital rape bill doing here? This country had made some progression for women and now have taken one step back to stone age. Sadly.


What we can gather from this farce is the ineffectiveness of Karzai's government in promoting a sense of democracy in Afghanistan. Just for the sake of votes, they had to sell country's fundamental democratic principles. It doesn't matter how young and new democracy is in the country, it cannot be sold on the basis of greed, power and lust. Now it doesn't matter what the government does next, whether it abolishes the bill or not, the damage is already being done. And what's more damaging is Karzai's apparent silence over this matter.