Afghan Warp

Wrapped in blankets and bright scarves, the six inmates were scattered like wallflowers on the side of a cell inside Kabul8217;s women146...

Wrapped in blankets and bright scarves, the six inmates were scattered like wallflowers on the side of a cell inside Kabul8217;s women8217;s prison.

There was Marzia, 28, whose 55-year-old husband won8217;t give her a divorce. She claimed he chained her feet and locked her in a small damp room in his house for a month. There was Nilofar, 16, and Fariba, 19, who fell in love with boys next door, and tried to elope. When Fariba refused to marry a cousin, she said, her father threatened to 8216;8216;chop me up and give me to my cousin in pieces8217;8217; 8212; while the cousin sent her a message that he would kill her as soon as she was freed.

On Nov. 13, when the Taliban left Kabul, the jail emptied. But in the last six months, women and teenage girls have started trickling back in, arrested for many of the same crimes that got them jailed during the Taliban era. The 29 current prisoners were jailed for eloping or leaving their homes or adultery.

Despite Western pressure for greater attention to the rights of women in Afghanistan, the legal system remains a big question mark. Many laws pertaining to women have not changed and there is confusion in legal circles and among investigators as to what the law actually is. Afghanistan now runs under a dual legal system, with both Sharia, or Islamic law, and some parts of the civil code that existed before the Taliban took control in 1996.

Martin Lau, an Islamic law specialist at the University of London8217;s School of Oriental and African Studies, said some offences, such as 8216;8216;honour crimes8217;8217; in which male relatives kill females for dishonouring the family, are more a matter of tradition than law. 8216;8216;It8217;s custom here. It8217;s not Islamic law,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;There is nothing in Islam that says a betrayed husband has the right to take the law into his own hands.8217;8217;

Sherin Aqa Manawee, deputy of Afghanistan8217;s Supreme Court, said under Sharia law, a man or woman is entitled to choose a spouse and the woman8217;s father has no legal right to interfere. But it rarely works out that way. The law clashes with the long-held Afghan tradition that families select the spouse. Women and girls who run away from their are arrested and taken to jail.

Lau said there were contradictions between judges and legal experts about what laws are in force.