Afghan Parliament Tables Bill Protecting Women After Objections From Islamic Legislators

Today's Deutsche Welle reports that in Afghanistan's Parliament, lawmakers have withdrawn a bill that would have instituted a number of protections for women.  The action came after  religious parties complained that the proposed law was un-Islamic.  The law would have set a minimum age for marriage for girls, outlawed domestic violence, supported shelters for women who were victims of domestic abuse, barred prosecution of women for rapes committed against them, and banned "baad" (a practice of trading a young girl to settle a family dispute).  Conservative member of parliament Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada said that the law reflected values not applicable in Afghanistan, that it might encourage promiscuity and give girls ideas about running away from home. In 2009, President Hamid Karzai had promulgated a Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women.  The bill in Parliament was an attempt to assure that those protections could not be reversed by a future president.