BIPARTISAN GROUP OF WOMEN LAWMAKERS INTRODUCE RESOLUTION CONDEMNING AFGHAN MARITAL RAPE LAW

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Judy Biggert (R-IL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced a concurrent resolution in the Senate and House of Representatives calling on Afghanistan’s leaders to repudiate a new Afghan law that includes provisions legalizing marital rape and imposing other Taliban-era restrictions on Shiite women in Afghanistan. The resolution urges Afghan President Hamid Karzai to declare the widely criticized provisions unconstitutional and clearly state that they violate the basic rights of women. In a recent interview with CNN, President Karzai indicated that the Afghan government plans to revise the 270-page law.

The resolution is cosponsored in the Senate by Senators Barbara
Mikulski (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Maria
Cantwell (D-WA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and
Susan Collins (R-ME). 

Senator Boxer said, “We stand with the hundreds of Afghan women who
were pelted with stones and verbally abused last week as they marched
to protest this abhorrent law. This law is a direct attack on
individual freedom and a license to commit despicable acts against
women in their homes.”

 
“Afghanistan’s full potential as a nation will be fully realized when
the women of Afghanistan are freed from their ‘sentence of silence’,”
said Senator Snowe. “This resolution sends a strong message to the
women of Afghanistan that the United States is committed to paving the
way for a new generation of Afghani women, actively participating and
contributing to the all aspects of rebuilding their society.”

 
“I am proud to stand united with my Senate colleagues today to show our
steadfast commitment to support the women of Afghanistan,” said Senator
Mikulski, Dean of the Senate Women and member of the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Foreign Aid. “The Shiite Personal Status Law violates
the basic human rights of women. American soldiers fight every day to
help the Afghans create a stable and free nation that can protect and
provide for its people. This is not the Afghanistan our brave men and
women are fighting for. This law is an affront to the sacrifices they
make every day. It cannot stand. The United States should do everything
it can to encourage Afghanistan to respect the basic rights and welfare
of women and children.”

 
“We have stood by the women of Afghanistan as they fought the harsh
rule of the Taliban, and we must stand by them now in the face of this
law’s fundamental violation of their human rights. All of Afghanistan
will be better when women are given the protections and rights they
deserve,” said Senator Murray. “I join my colleagues in Congress and
President Obama in condemning this law, and I call on President Karzai
and the parliament of Afghanistan to repeal it immediately.”
 

Congresswoman Maloney said, “We must stand with the women of
Afghanistan in fierce opposition to any effort to limit the rights
guaranteed to them in the Afghan constitution, or worse, relegate them
to second-class status. I strongly urge President Karzai and the Afghan
government to take every action necessary to ensure that this law never
takes effect.”

 
Congresswoman Biggert said, “This law exposes women to cruel and
demeaning treatment. It has no place in any society. The women of
Afghanistan deserve to know that their daughters will grow up in a
culture of dignity, security, and basic freedoms.”
 

“This resolution adds our voices to the worldwide outcry condemning a
law that reduces women to property and subjects them to abuse. We stand
firmly with Afghan women against such archaic tyranny,” said
Congresswoman Baldwin.

 
Under the law passed by the Afghan Parliament and signed by President
Karzai last month, a Shiite woman would only be allowed to leave home
for a “legitimate purpose” as defined by her husband. The law also
says, “Unless the wife is ill, the wife is bound to give a positive
response to the sexual desires of the husband,” a provision that the
United Nations and many human rights groups say legalizes marital rape.

 
On April 10, Senator Boxer along with her colleagues Olympia Snowe
(R-ME), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Jeanne
Shaheen (D-NH), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), wrote to Karzai urging him
to reverse the law.

 

Following is the text of the concurrent House and Senate Resolution:

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress that the Shi'ite Personal Status Law
in Afghanistan violates the fundamental human rights of women and
should be repealed;

Whereas in March 2009, the Shi’ite Personal Status Law was approved by
the parliament of Afghanistan and signed by President Hamid Karzai;

Whereas according to the United Nations, the law legalizes marital rape
by mandating that a wife cannot refuse sex to her husband unless she is
ill;

Whereas the law also weakens mothers’ rights in the event of a divorce
and prohibits a woman from leaving her home unless her husband
determines it is for a “legitimate purpose”;

Whereas U.S. President Barack Obama has called the law “abhorrent” and
stated that “there are certain basic principles that all nations should
uphold, and respect for women and respect for their freedom and
integrity is an important principle.”

Whereas the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has said
that the law represents a “huge step in the wrong direction”…and is
“extraordinary, reprehensible and reminiscent of the decrees made by
the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the 1990s.”

Whereas, the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) has asserted that passage of the law could
discourage European countries from contributing additional troops to
help combat terrorism in the region;

Whereas President Karzai has instructed that the government and members
of the clergy review the law and change any articles that are not in
keeping with Afghanistan’s Constitution and Islamic Sharia, yet has not
made a concrete declaration that the provision legalizing marital rape
and other provisions curtailing women’s rights will be removed
completely;

Whereas the law includes provisions that are fundamentally incompatible
with Afghanistan’s obligations under the various international
instruments which it has ratified, as well as under its own
Constitution;

Whereas Afghanistan is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (UDHR) which establishes the principle of
nondiscrimination, including on the basis of sex, and states that men
and women are entitled to equal rights to marriage, during marriage,
and at its dissolution;

Whereas Afghanistan became a party to the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which emphasizes the
principle of self-determination, in that men and women may freely
determine their political status as well as their economic, social, and
cultural development;

Whereas Afghanistan acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which condemns
discrimination against women in all its forms and reaffirms the equal
rights and responsibilities of men and women during marriage and at its
dissolution;

Whereas, notwithstanding any declarations or reservations made upon
ratification of these various international conventions, Afghanistan is
under an obligation not to act in any way which might defeat the object
and purpose of these conventions, pursuant to the Vienna Convention of
Treaties, which is widely recognized as embodying customary
international law;

Whereas Article 22 of the Constitution of Afghanistan (2003) prohibits
any kind of discrimination between and privilege among the citizens of
Afghanistan and establishes the equal rights of all citizens before the
law;

Whereas Article 54 of the Constitution of Afghanistan obligates the
government to ensure the physical and psychological well-being of the
family, especially of mothers and children;

Whereas the international community and the United States have a
long-standing commitment to and interest in working with the Afghan
people and government to re-establish respect for fundamental human
rights and protect women’s rights in Afghanistan;

Whereas the provisions in the Shi’ite Personal Status Law which
restrict women’s rights are diametrically opposed to those goals: Now,
therefore, be it

Resolved, by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress –

1. Urges the Government of Afghanistan and President Hamid Karzai to
declare the provision on marital rape and restrictions on women's
freedom of movement unconstitutional and an erosion of Afghanistan’s
growth and development;

2. Supports President Karzai’s decision to analyze the draft law and
strongly urges him not to publish it on the grounds that it violates
the Constitution of Afghanistan and the basic human rights of women.

3. Encourages the Secretary of State, the Special Representative to
Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Ambassador-at-Large for International
Women’s Issues and the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan to consider and
address the status of women’s rights and security in Afghanistan to
ensure that these rights are not being eroded through unjust laws,
policies, or institutions;

4. Encourages the Government of Afghanistan to solicit information and
advice from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry for Women’s Affairs,
the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, and women-led NGOs
to ensure that current and future legislation and official policies
protect and uphold the equal rights of women, including through
national campaigns to lead public discourse on the importance of
women’s status and rights to the overall stability of Afghanistan.