March is Women’s History Month–a good time to think about the women who came before us who worked tirelessly to better the conditions for women in this country and a good time to reflect on women around the world, many of whom who do not have the rights American women enjoy.
Consider the situation in Afghanistan: President Harmid Karzai is slowly walking back the statutes put in place after the fall of the Taliban to ensure women’s basic human rights and some measure of participation in the Afghan government.
Last summer-right before his own questionable reelection-Karzai signed the Shia Muslim family law–which prevents mothers from gaining custody of children, requires women to get permission to work, allows marital rape and permits a husband to deny food and other basic needs to his wife if she refuses sexual relations with him.
And just last week, Karzai issued a decree that would remove independent foreign members from the Electoral Complaints Commission-the watchdog agency that uncovered cheating by Karzai’s own campaign in last year’s presidential elections. The decree would also reduce the number of women in the Afghan parliament from the guaranteed two seats per province in the lower house.