Issues such as polygamy and a woman’s right to work and to refuse sex have been addressed only with “slight changes in the wordings of the law, rather than changes in content,’’ the letter states.
The section about submitting to sex every four days was deleted, but other sections let a husband order sex, said Shinkai Kharokhel, a lawmaker involved in attempts to change the legislation.
A section explaining a husband must provide financially for his wife also says he can withhold support if she refuses to “submit to her husband’s reasonable sexual enjoyment,’’ according to Human Rights Watch.
That’s equivalent to saying a husband can starve his wife if she refuses to have sex, Kharokhel said.
Most Afghan women “are illiterate and they don’t have financial security and no one will give her money . . . shelter, medical, food, all these expenses belong to the man, and he can hold that back,’’ she said.
The revised law would also restrict a woman’s right to leave the house and to work, she said.
Even so, Kharokhel said, deletion of some of the most controversial articles showed the government was trying to address women’s rights.
She said she hopes there will be further revisions proposed.
It is a view seconded by other activists. Wazhma Frogh, who works with a human rights group called Global Rights and was one of the drafters of the letter, said the proposed deletions of some restrictions “shows their support for women’s rights issues.’’
Frogh said the letter was agreed to by more than 50 civil society groups, though no group signed it by name.
She said signatures were not omitted out of fear, but with the idea that the missive should be seen as representing Afghan women, rather than a few groups in Kabul.
