Women's groups decry new Afghan law

South Asia Women's Network (SWAN) and Afghan Women's Network (AWN) today came out against a move by Afghanistan to enact a law, that will allow men to resort to violence against their wives, children and sisters without fear of judicial punishment.
In a joint statement, SWAN, headquartered in New Delhi, and AWN called for scrapping of the enactment of discriminatory laws which will encourage violence against women.
A change in Afghanistan's criminal prosecution code bans relatives of an accused involved in violence against women from testifying against him.
The law passed by parliament is awaiting the signature of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and will effectively silence victims as well as most potential witnesses to their sufferings.

"SWAN fully supports the appeal of the Afghan Women's Network (AWN) to provide women of Afghanistan access to justice by stopping the enactment of the proposed discriminatory laws which will only encourage violence against women," SWAN Convenor Veena Sikri said.
SWAN consists of nine SAARC countries--Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

"SWAN appeals to President Hamid Karzai, to Afghan National Assembly and to all legislative commissions, especially the Independent Oversight Commission on the Constitution, to uphold the equal rights of women and men, as enshrined in the Constitution of Afghanistan, which prohibits any discriminatory laws against women," Sikri said.

"SWAN and all the women of South Asia share the pain and anguish of our sisters in Afghanistan and support them in this hour of need. We fully endorse the fervent appeal and the heartfelt sentiments expressed by Afghan Women's Network and civil society groups," she said.
AWN said Afghan Parliament passed discriminatory laws against women contrary to the provisions of the Constitution "on equal rights of the women and men and prohibiting any discriminations against women" this year which "will lead to the structured violence against women and furthermore will limit their access to justice and will decrease their opportunities on having women representatives in the provincial councils".

The limiting of the quota of women in legislative bodies lto 20 per cent will decrease the political and social participation of women nationally and support the insurgent's acts who try to limit the representation of women through killing women, it said.