Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has ordered a review of a new law that critics say effectively legalises the rape of women by their husbands.Western leaders, including Barack Obama, the US president, and Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, have criticised the law which grants Shia husbands the right to have intercourse with their wives every fourth night.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women has said it "legalises the rape of a wife by her husband". Navi Pillay, the United Nations human rights chief in Afghanistan, has called on the Afghan government to revoke the legislation, saying it is "reminiscent of the decrees made by the Taliban regime". Under the new measure, Shia women would be banned from working or receiving an education without their husbands' permission, the UN agency said. They would also be forbidden from leaving their homes except for "legitimate purposes," the agency said.
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