Afghan MP Urges Women Parliamentarians To Travel With Chaperones

At the end of January, several members of Afghanistan's Parliament traveled to London to participate in an international donor's conference. Two of the Parliamentarians were women. Yesterday's Christian Science Monitor reports that Al-Hajj Abdul Jabbar Shalgarai, a conservative member of Parliament also on the trip, complained that the women were in violation of Islamic law. They were traveling for more than three days without being accompanied by a male member of their family. As of now, these travel restrictions, known as mahram-e sharaii, have not been enacted by Afghanistan's Parliament as part of national law. However, Zeefunun Safi, a female member of Parliament, says that if a bill is introduced to require the practice, it may well pass. She says, "There are lots of women in Parliament against this, but they have to support it, because people will say, 'You are not our representative, get out of Parliament.' " Conservative Parliamentarian Shalgarai says no new law is required: "This country is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and the Constitution says that nothing can be done in Afghanistan that is against sharia law."