Hamid Karzai backs clerics’ move to limit Afghan women’s rights | World news | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/06/hamid-karzai-afghanistan-womens-rights
Afghanistan’s president has endorsed a “code of conduct” issued by an influential council of clerics which activists say represents a giant step backwards for women’s rights in the country.
President Hamid Karzai’s endorsement of the Ulema Council’s document, which allows husbands to beat wives under certain circumstances and encourages segregation of the sexes, is seen as part of his outreach to insurgents including the Taliban.
Both the US and Karzai hope that the Taliban can be brought into negotiations to end the country’s decade-long war. But activists say they are worried that gains made by women since 2001 may be lost in the process.