Afghan Law on Women Brings Societal Conflict Onto World Stage

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Afghan Law on Women Brings Societal Conflict Onto World Stage

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 5, 2009; Page A13


KABUL, April 4 -- Outside the gates of Kabul University, young Shiite women in fashionable black jackets and scarves hopped off city buses each morning last week, then strolled to biology and law classes alongside clusters of male students, chatting about career plans.

But in a carpeted mosque a few blocks away, the Shiite imam admonished male worshipers Friday to keep close watch on their wives and daughters, saying it is "Satan's work" when women visit public places such as shrines wearing attractive clothing. Behind a curtain, female worshipers enveloped in burqas listened in silence.

Like Afghan society at large, the country's Shiite Muslim minority is grappling with conflicting pressures between a strong tradition of male family dominance and a gradually evolving acceptance of women's modern rights. Usually, this struggle takes place out of the public eye, within families and religious communities.

In the past few days, however, the legal repression of Afghan Shiite women has created a global uproar, bringing condemnation from Western governments and U.N. officials, just as Washington and NATO are debating their military and economic commitment to Afghanistan and the faltering war against Islamist insurgents.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/04/AR2009040402595.html