Afghanistan: New law legalizes violence against women

Source : The Guardian 05.02.2014.

Small change of the Afghan criminal law will have a huge consequences in country where ‘honour’ killings and forced marriage are rife. The new Afghan law will allow men to physically attack their wives, children, sisters, without fear of judicial punishment.

This low undoes years of slow progress in tackling violence in a country blighted by so-called “honour” killings, forced marriage and vicious domestic abuse.

Most violence against women in Afghanistan is within the family, so that the new low will effectively silence victims as well as most potential witnesses to their suffering.

New regulations were approved by the Afghan Parliament on February 5th, 2013, but still awaiting the signature of the president, Hamid Karzai. With the entry into force of the new regulation will become almost impossible to prosecute someone for “honor killings”, whose executors are fathers and brothers who do not approve of the behavior of their daughters or sisters. It will be almost impossible to convict someone for forced marriage or trafficking of female children in order to end feuds or settle debt between families.