Disgusting.

Critics assail Afghan law that ’legalizes rape’

(The Associated Press)

KABUL (AP) — A new Afghan law makes it legal for men to rape their wives, human rights groups and some Afghan lawmakers said Thursday, accusing President Hamid Karzai of signing the legislation to bolster his re-election prospects.
Critics worry the legislation undermines hard-won rights for women enacted after the fall of the Taliban’s strict Islamist regime.

The law — which some lawmakers say was never debated in parliament — is intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan’s Shiite community, which makes up about 20 percent of this country of 30 million people. The law does not affect Afghan Sunnis.

One of the most controversial articles stipulates the wife “is bound to preen for her husband as and when he desires.”
“As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night,” Article 132 of the law says. “Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband.”

One provision also appears to protect the woman’s right to sex inside marriage saying the “man should not avoid having sexual relations with his wife longer than once every four months.”

The law’s critics say Karzai signed the legislation in the past month only for political gains several months before the country’s presidential election.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women, or UNIFEM, said the law “legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband.”
“The law violates women’s rights and human rights in numerous ways,” a UNIFEM statement said.

The strongest criticism came from Canada, a country that has lost 116 soldiers fighting the Taliban and spent up to $8 billion to support the Karzai government.

“The concept that women are full human beings with human rights is very, very central to the reason the international community is engaged in this country,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said this week in London, where he’s attending the G-20 summit.

Canada’s Defense Minister Peter MacKay said he will use this week’s NATO summit to put “direct” pressure on his Afghan counterparts to abandon the legislation.

The issue of women’s rights is a continuous source of tension between the country’s conservative establishment and more liberal members of society. The Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 banned women from appearing in public without a body-covering burqa and a male escort from her family.

Much has improved since then. Millions of girls now attend school and many women own businesses. Of 351 parliamentarians, 89 are women.

But in this staunchly conservative country, critics fear those gains could easily be reversed.

Fawzia Kufi, a lawmaker who opposed the legislation, said several of its articles undermine constitutional and human rights of women as equals and take the country backward.

“All the efforts that were made in the last seven years to enhance women’s rights will be undermined,” Kufi said.
Karzai has not commented on the law. A spokesman, Waheed Omar, said the president is “aware of the discussion surrounding the law, and is looking into the matter.”

Brad Adams, the Asia director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the law is a “dramatic setback for women’s rights.”

“It directly contradicts the freedoms enshrined in the Afghan constitution and the international conventions that Afghanistan has signed up to that guarantee the rights of women,” Adams said.

Safia Sidiqi, a lawmaker from Nangarhar province who condemned the legislation, said she cannot remember parliament debating or even voting on the law and she does not know how it came to be signed by Karzai. She called for the law to be recalled to parliament for debate.

“It is impossible in a two-month session for parliament to pass a law more than 200 pages long,” she said of the 263-page law.
Sayed Hossain Alemi Balkhi, a Shiite lawmaker involved in drafting it, defended the legislation saying it gives more rights to women than even Britain or the United States does. He said the law makes women safer and ensures the husband is obliged to provide for her.

As Karzai seeks re-election later this year, he is courting voters in the Shiite community, Kufi said. Women voters are presumed to vote as their husbands do.

“Women’s basic freedoms are being sacrificed for the political and electoral gain of a few parliamentarians,” Human Rights Watch’s Adams said.
——
Associated Press writers Rob Gillies and Charmaine Noronha in Toronto contributed to this report.

... maybe sweeter?

... my next little getaway will be here: (3 nights)



... errr, hopefully without the scary, yet amazingly beautiful bolt of lighting.

... sweeeet.

I was there. Under THIS balloon ....

Photo of the Day 3/25

I laugh at my debt

News from Gannett

Here's a portion of the letter I just got:


We continue to battle very difficult economic headwinds causing consumers and advertisers to remain cautious, resulting in further revenue declines. This will require our division to implement a second round of furloughs in the coming months. Furloughs again will be required for all US Community Publishing employees in the second quarter – April, May and June – but we will approach the program differently than in the first quarter.

Your current pay level will determine the length of your furlough. USCP employees at the operating units earning $90,000 and above will furlough for two weeks during the quarter. USCP employees at corporate headquarters earning $90,000 and above will take one week of unpaid leave and also will have a temporary pay reduction of the equivalent of one week’s pay. That reduction will be spread equally over the three month period. All other USCP employees will be on the same program as last quarter and furlough for one week. Your level of pay is based on your salary or hourly wage. Commissions, bonuses and overtime earnings are not part of the calculation. Your supervisor will provide the specific details.

Everyone’s participation in the furlough will enable us to minimize the need for additional layoffs during the quarter. The vast majority of our employees fall within the salary ranges that require a furlough of five days during the quarter. We are asking for a larger contribution from some of our employees. I believe these employees will embrace and support this change. We will once again ask employees covered by a bargaining agreement to participate in lieu of layoffs. We are hopeful union leadership will once again support this approach.

In addition to the furloughs, we will institute a wage and salary freeze effective April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010.

That's right, another week of furlough. Another week of pay GONE. After this most recent furlough, although I made the best of it and had an absolute blast on Virginia - realty hit me hard on Friday when I got my paycheck. It was not even enough to pay rent. I had to BEG my parents for money so that I could eat for the next two weeks. My credit cards are maxed out, I have no savings. It's sad, really. I feel pathetic. Things will be OK in two weeks when I get paid my normal amount, but damn, it will be tight until then.

How depressing.

Screw you, Gannett.

The girls will go to new homes (I hope)

If you know anyone who wants a nice hunter pleasure, dressage, jumper or even classic pleasure Morgan - both Corinne and Piper will be going through the 2009 Signature Sale (link here)

... I just hope they go to good homes.