The parliamentary government of Afghanistan has voted to reject a proposal that would have passed laws stopping girls younger than 16 from getting married, along with protecting other women’s rights issues.
The parliamentary government of Afghanistan has voted to reject a proposal that would have passed laws stopping girls younger than 16 from getting married, along with protecting other women’s rights issues.
The proposal would have created laws that protect rape victims from being charged with fornication or adultery, and banned the tradition of buying and selling women into marriage to settle disputes.
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai was in support of the proposal, but members of the parliament felt that it “violated Islamic principles.”
The discord between parliament and the President shows a political divide prior to elections that are set for April of 2014.
The United Nations Children’s Fund said that 57 percent of brides in Afghanistan are reportedly under the age of 16.
Khatema Mosleh, a women’s rights activist from the Afghan Women's Network said: "When we speak with girls who married very young, they usually say, 'It feels like we didn't have a life, we didn't have childhood. These girls don't even remember their wedding day because they were so young.”
