How do you feel about the United States being allies with a country that legalizes rape?

@ownage Cover up… your ignorance is showing.

@Ownage I don’t understand your response. Are you saying you like the idea of legalized rape?

That is terrible, I am glad to hear the women are trying to fight this.

…..

Ignore the troll.

That’s what he’s become, and you shouldn’t feed it.

[Mod says]: Stay on topic please.

[mod says:] Let’s answer the question and avoid arguments and personal attacks please.

Double trouble.

That’s a damn shame :(

It’s not rape in general but marital rape they are protesting. I suspect that marital rape wasn’t taken to court before either, but they actually made a law making it not a legal offense. Afghan democracy I guess. No man should have political power in that country.

@oratio And women should have the power? Stop trying to mess with a system that has worked for hundreds of years.

@Ownage Clearly it’s not working if people are protesting it.

@Ownage: Oppression is not a sign of something working dumb@ss.

I don’t like it, but can we force them to change? I don’t know.

@casheroo Not really, I think education is the only way to change people’s minds. That will take generations.

@oratio I don’t see the difference between rape and “marital rape”. If a man forces himself on a woman, wife or not, it’s rape.

This is disgusting, and we should do everything in our power to reverse the law.

However, it’s worth noting that marital rape only became illegal in the U.S. in the 70’s. Traditional Judaism and Christianity also treated wives as the property of their husbands. Islamic culture is backwards, but it’s important to remember that our culture was backwards as well, and quite recently.

@Benny Yes, but the question wasn’t really clear of what it was about. Reading the question just like it is written, makes it look like afgan men can walk up to any woman in the street and have sex with her, and it would be illegal to say no. Do you see a difference, Benny? Yes, both are rape. It’s very good that you understand that.

@oratio Don’t be patronizing. You said, “It’s not rape in general, but marital rape they are protesting”. I was pointing out that they’re both rape and there’s no difference.

@Qingu Karzai put the law on hold, probably expecting the outrage. But he still signed it.

the US (and any other country) unfortunately cannot forge international alliances based on human rights violations or in fact any other “internal” differences. If that were true, nobody would be allies with each other, except perhaps Finland and Estonia, who share the same respect for the rights of urangotangs found floating in the Baltic. Even US and Canada have their differences.

I also think it is hard to make judgement about laws (and customs) in another country, and let’s not forget that Afganistan is a very unique case, where only just a couple of years ago it was illegal to play cards, own a computer, listen to music or sunbathe. And that was if you were a man. Women had so few rights that rape is actually a step forward from there.

Ambassador Said Jawad said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” scheduled to air today, “This is not the law yet, and it will not become the law, because it contradicts some important principles of the Afghan constitution.”

—Jezebel

Just sayin’. I’m anti-rape in all forms and pro-women’s rights. So of course I find this law distasteful. I also have hope that this dude is right and it won’t become law.

@Jack79, we most certainly can make judgments about laws and customs in another country.

There’s a difference between allowing for a gradual evolution of morality in such places and not judging immorality in such places.

I agree with you Qingu, though the question here is: who is “we”? Do you mean “we” as in “the people posting on this thread”? Or do you mean “we, the United States of America” (though I am not American myself)?

If it is the latter, how can “we” make judgement on some obsolete Afghan law, when “we” are holding innocent Afghan prisoners in Quantanamo and torturing them without trial? Who is America to pass judgement? The America that used weapons of mass destruction, attacks whoever does not support their business interests, and has openly supported genocide in the Middle East for the past 60 years? Americans are the only citizens excempt from the Crimes Against Humanity bill, for the sole reason that “there would be so many trials of American soldiers if that happened that we wouldn’t have time for anything else” (this is the official reason given by president Bush). So I guess that this is why politicians remain quiet. Compared to the everyday behaviour of the USA and ALL of its NATO allies, raping women in Afghanistan (something done regularly by NATO soldiers throughout the world) does not even qualify as a crime.

I know that one case is about soldiers doing stuff illegally without the support of their country and the other is officially acceptable, and yes of course I find that law barbaric, but seen in the context of world politics (and that’s what the question was about, not about whether the law was right or wrong), I’d say America has no right to talk.

We of course, as people who have generally never raped any Afghan women in Baku or tortured any Afghan men in Quantanamo, may have a nice little internet discussion about it, from the safety of our Western-World homes.

Fair point. Our country’s moral standing nowadays doesn’t give us much leverage. I still think we should use what leverage we have, though.

and I meant Kabul obviously, Baku is the capital of Ajerbaijan. Sorry, I’m supposed to be good at geography most of the time