Afghan “code of conduct” threatens women’s rights
Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, has endorsed a "code of conduct" issued by the Ulema Council (an influential council of clerics) on Friday 2nd March 2012, which presents a set of guidelines that religious women should obey in Afghanistan.
The "code of conduct" allows husbands to beat wives under certain circumstances and encourages segregation of the sexes, which can be seen as reaching out to insurgents like the Taliban. Given the guidelines appear to contradict some of the rights presented in the constitution, this is a worrying sign that plans and aspirations to protect women’s rights in Afghanistan could be sacrificed for peace negotiations.
CAFOD’s Director, Chris Bain says ‘It is vital that women are able to play a meaningful role in public life, and crucially in the peace process moving forwards. This development is a clear indication that women’s rights are being sacrificed as a negotiating tool, and that through this "code of conduct", Afghanistan is risking a systematic dismantling of women’s rights, and restricting their ability to flourish as human beings’.
There has been modest progress on women’s rights in recent years, but it is vital that women can access full education, have economic independence and a full stake in public life for there to be long term, positive change. For CAFOD, President Karzai’s endorsement of this “code of conduct”, promoting the restriction of women’s rights in Afghanistan, is a grave concern.
