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Truly Saddening

and disgusting to see this in this day and age, especially when "religious faith" is used as a cover.

To: IRANdokht

  I think you are right; "Church and State" is refered to all religions, and I happen to believe in the same concept.

  Having said that, some religions could be more easily  used as a tool of repression, than say, Buddhism, where everything comes in a nice, soft, abstract recommandation, with no explicit punishment prescribed, for the sinner, as far as I know.

   But then again, Jesus never convicted and punished anyone, for a 'sin', but see how his teachings were used to commit all kinds of atrocities. 

Yours,

Ali P.

P.S. And if I get attacked, or receive any hate mail, because of my comment, "I know and You!" :-)

The application of the law

The Shia minority in Afghanistan are called the Hazara, whom by the way have been the subject of repression and even mass killing by the Sunnis, specifically the Taliban in the past. The majority live in Western Afghanistan closer to the Iranian border. The Sunni Afghanis and Pakistanis are no slouches in the misogyny department themselves mind you. This is not a black and white issue, not to imply the Shia are the bag guys or the Sunnis, etc.  Part of it is local and cultural. The Lebanese Shia don't behave this way, even in Iran the current government has been facing resistance for 30 years.  There is no way someone like Faeze Rafsanjani can have a public face in Afghanistan.  Also as any well-informed person knows all (at least Abrahamic) religions are deeply patriarchal and have a legacy of misogyny.  It’s not just Islam.  The Latin Christians are different from Northern Europeans.  In general, religions are not monolithic and are subject to modulations.  So, this is not about condemning Islam or Shia per se, but confronting the idea of applying sharia law vis-à-vis women in “this day and age”, not that marital rape felt any better 1000 years ago.  Religions are like a buffet table, even to fundamentalists, you pick what you want.  The sharia laws regarding women are about power more than anything, patriarchal power.  I’m not a scholar but I don’t think core teachings of Islam is so concentrated on the female body.  But women have been used as bargaining chip in the past 30 years in the Islamic world in the name of pragmatism or “cultural relativity.” For instance in Algeria, the FLN government in the 80’s, under the gun from the emerging Islamic parties, radically changed its civil codes in relation to women’s rights in order to appease them, never mind how much the women contributed to Algerian independence  which was plenty(anyone remembers Djamila Boupacha?).  And a few years ago, a brain-dead judge in Quebec gave a Muslim man a lighter sentence because he had anally raped his young step-daughter rather than vaginally.  The aforementioned moron judge stated in his sentencing that the rapist was being considerate according to his culture by not violating the young girl’s virginity. Go figure.  BTW, I read yesterday in the new that a women's rights activist had been assasinated in Kabul.

it sure it's shameful

Thank you for the report. I was not aware that Shia was the minority religion in Afghanestan by such low percentage.

Ali P.

I believe the expression "church and state" refers to all religions and it's obvious that it's a bad idea to have religious authorities or religious values of one group (no matter which one) to rule and become law of the land.

Do you think any religion is better than others?

IRANdokht

And we thought Church and State combination sucked...

"The new law, which applies to the 15 per cent of the population who are Shia Muslim..."

 So it doesn't apply to 85% of the population?

How does this work?

Mosque and State...Great combination. Ain't it?