Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Karzai seeks ban on forced marriages
Reuters
Kabul, April 19, 2005
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday called on the country's Islamic clerics to help stop forced marriages of young girls.
At a religious gathering in Kabul, Karzai urged Afghan scholars to follow the lead of Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, who earlier this month termed forced marriages un-Islamic and said violators should be jailed.
"Last week I became very happy when I heard the Ulema (scholars') fatwa by the brotherly country and heart of Islam, Saudi Arabia," he told the assembly, which included some women.
"In this fatwa they mentioned that forced marriages of girls is unjust in Islam. We have similar problems in Afghanistan. I hope that the noble Afghan Ulema issues a similar fatwa like the Saudi Ulema to end the oppression of Afghan women and girls."
He said some Afghan women were still oppressed three and a half years after U.S.-led forces overthrew the radical Taliban government that barred women from education and most outdoor work.
While the Taliban greatly restricted women's rights, ordering them to wear coverall burqa garments when venturing outdoors, they themselves opposed forced marriages of girls.
The group's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar issued a decree banning forced marriages but the practice, which has been going on for centuries, has continued.
In some parts of the country, girls of 12 or younger are still given in marriage to settle tribal disputes, especially in southern areas bordering Pakistan which are home to ethnic Pashtuns, Afghanistan's biggest tribe.
Despite an easing of restrictions on women's rights since the Taliban's overthrow, many women continue to wear burqas to avoid inflaming conservative sentiments, and dozens commit suicide every year to escape abuse by their husbands.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.