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Who would want to be a woman in Afghanistan?

The newly enacted repressive laws affecting women in Afghanistan brought forth an unusual protest yesterday - by women.

In a piece "Afghan Women Protest New Law on Home Life" the NY Times reports:

"With the Afghan police keeping the mob at bay, the women walked two miles to Parliament, where they delivered a petition calling for the law’s repeal.

“Whenever a man wants sex, we cannot refuse,” said Fatima Husseini, 26, one of the marchers. “It means a woman is a kind of property, to be used by the man in any way that he wants.”

The law, approved by both houses of Parliament and signed by President Hamid Karzai, applies to the Shiite minority only. Women here and governments and rights groups abroad have protested three parts of the law especially.

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."

Meanwhile, the Times also has a video "A Man's World":

"After three decades of war, Afghanistan is one of the world's widow capitals. They are ridiculed as prostitutes when they go shopping, and many are unable to rent their own homes."

Watch the video here.

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