Brave Women Ahead

These women are amazing. In the face of so many odds, they organized and rallied against a ridiculous and oppressive law designed to objectify them.

From the New York Times' article by Dexter Filkins:

But the march continued anyway. About 300 Afghan women, facing an angry throng three times larger than their own, walked the streets of the capital on Wednesday to demand that Parliament repeal a new law that introduces a range of Taliban-like restrictions on women, and permits, among other things, marital rape.

How intimidating would that be? I've been to my fair share of protests, and they always make me nervous. I've organized rallies and press conferences on topics like abortion rights, saving a housing fund that supported domestic violence and homeless shelters, and a march to bring attention to the issue of rape and violence on college campuses. I've gotten the usual stares, heckling, tough questions, and scoffs. I've been called a crazy feminist, a baby killer, a liberal hippie. But I've never faced a mob of angry, threatening men calling me a whore.

The law that the women were protesting is described below (and only applies to the Shiite minority):

One provision makes it illegal for a woman to resist her husband’s sexual advances. A second provision requires a husband’s permission for a woman to work outside the home or go to school. And a third makes it illegal for a woman to refuse to “make herself up” or “dress up” if that is what her husband wants.

Horrible, right? But lest you think we're light years ahead, it wasn't until the mid-1990s that marital rape became illegal in the States (http://www.vawnet.org/).

Please take a minute to read the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/world/asia/16afghan.html