Karzai: Beating women permitted, “It is the Shariah law of all Muslims and all Afghans”

From Creeping Sharia:

Karzai: Beating women permitted, “It is the Shariah law of all Muslims and all Afghans”

Posted on March 7, 2012 by creeping

Sharia Nation Building. Is that what American men and women are really sacrificing and dying for? via Afghan president endorses clerics’ strict code of conduct for women, worrying activists – The Washington Post.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s president on Tuesday endorsed a “code of conduct” issued by an influential council of clerics that activists say represents a giant step backward for women’s rights in the country.

President Hamid Karzai’s Tuesday remarks backing the Ulema Council’s document, which allows husbands to beat wives under certain circumstancesand encourages segregation of the sexes, is seen as part of his outreach to insurgents like the Taliban.

Among the rules: Women should not travel without a male guardian and women should not mingle with strange men in places like schools, markets or offices. Beating one’s wife is prohibited only if there is no “Shariah-compliant reason,” it said, referring to the principles of Islamic law.

Asked about the code of conduct at a press conference in the capital, Karzai said it was in line with Islamic law and was written in consultation with Afghan women’s groups. He did not name the groups that were consulted.

“The clerics’ council of Afghanistan did not put any limitations on women,” Karzai said, adding: “It is the Shariah law of all Muslims and all Afghans.”

Hadi Marifat of the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, which surveyed 5,000 Afghan women for a recent report on the state of women’s rights in Afghanistan, argued that the statements show Karzai is shifting more toward the strictest interpretations of Shariah law.

“In the post-Taliban Afghanistan, the guiding principle of President Karzai regarding women’s rights has been attracting funding from the international community on one hand, balanced against the need to get the support of the Ulema Council and other traditionalists on the other,” Marifat said.

“The concerning thing is that now this balance is shifting toward the conservative element, and that was obvious in his statement.”

Jihad Watch notes American media are much the same: Huffington Post enables beating of women