Afghanistan Law To Silence Victims Of Honour Killings, Domestic Violence And Forced Marriage

A new law in Afghanistan might allow the perpetrators of domestic violence, honour killings and forced marriages to commit these crimes without any consequences – simply because they are related to the victim.

The controversial change to Afghanistan’s criminal prosecution code prevents relatives of the accused from testifying against them. This means that any crime committed within a family would go unpunished, allowing men to attack and rape their wives, marry off their daughters under age, and even commit honour killings. In a country where many crimes of violence occur within the family, this new law could be extremely harmful to progress made by NGOs and organisations who have worked tirelessly to promote women’s rights in the region. Not only does the law silence a victim of a domestic abuse case, but it also silences any potential witnesses who might be within the family. This new law could effectively make it impossible to protect women and girls from any form of domestic abuse, giving men the complete right to beat and rape their female relatives as much and as often as they wish. The law has been passed by parliament and now awaits the approval of President Hamid Karzai.

Article 26 of the draft criminal procedure law, “Prohibition of Questioning an Individual as a Witness,” states that “The following people cannot be questioned as witnesses: … 4) Relatives of the accused.” The Article has also been altered to ban children, doctors and defence lawyers for the accused. With most people in Afghanistan living under one roof with their extended families, the change in the criminal code effectively bans any potential witnesses to a crime.

Women’s rights groups across the globe have come out in protest against the change to the prosecution code, with Women for Afghan Women saying that “silencing witnesses does far more than allow these acts to occur with impunity” but it also “encourages them to take place.” The organisation runs 28 Family Guidance Centers, shelters and halfway houses in 10 provinces across Afghanistan and has served roughly 10,000 women and girls during their time there – “most of whom have been victims of a long list of gender-based acts that violate every convention in the civilized world on women’s and child rights.” Their fear over this new law stems from the fact that many of the women they have sheltered have been victims of crimes committed by their in-laws, husbands, fathers and sons. Under this new law, organisations such as WAW would be unable to help these women in any way.

Under this new law girls like Sahar Gul, a child bride who was tortured by her husband and in-laws would never be able to take their cases to court. Sahar is one example of how a young girl can overcome domestic abuse and show the world what is really happening behind closed doors, but if the law isn’t on her side, it’s easy to imagine that girls like her won’t be so eager to come out against their family knowing that they have to go back to them at the end of the day.

This new change to the law poses as a massive drawback from the progress made in Afghanistan’s Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) that was passed by presidential decree in 2009, stating new criminal punishments for crimes such as rape, child marriage, forced marriage, domestic violence and the sale of women and girls. Even the traditional practice of baad (the giving of girls to resolve family disputes) was penalised under EVAW. Human Rights Watch has stated that: “Presidential signature on the procedural law would be in clear contradiction to the government’s public commitment to women’s rights and to the EVAW law in particular.”

But there’s still time to prevent this law from becoming official. Girls’ Globe is calling on the citizens of the world to come together to ensure that President Karzai does not pass this bill and ensure that Afghanistan continues in it’s plight to strengthen women’s rights in the country. In the 21st century, there’s no place for a step backwards in human rights issues that should be black and white. Urge Afghanistan’s leader to put an end to this extreme violation of women’s rights – sign the petition before he makes a huge mistake that will affect the lives of thousands of women and girls in a country that has already been witness to far too much devastation.