Row over Afghan wife-starving law

By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News


Critics accuse President Hamid Karzai of betraying Afghan women
An Afghan bill allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex has been published in the official gazette and become law.
The original bill caused outrage earlier this year, forcing Afghan President Hamid Karzai to withdraw it.
But critics say the amended version of the law remains highly repressive.
They accuse Mr Karzai of selling out Afghan women for the sake of conservative Shia support at next week's presidential election.
The law governs family life for Afghanistan's Shia minority.
Sexual demands
The original version obliged Shia women to have sex with their husbands every four days at a minimum, and it effectively condoned rape by removing the need for consent to sex within marriage.

The original bill caused outrage within Afghanistan and around the world
Western leaders and Afghan women's groups were united in condemning an apparent reversal of key freedoms won by women after the fall of the Taliban.
Now an amended version of the same bill has passed quietly into law with the apparent approval of President Karzai.
Just ahead of this Thursday's Afghan presidential election, human rights groups suggest the timing is no accident.
"There was a review process - Karzai came under huge pressure from all over the world to amend this law, but many of the most oppressive laws remain," Rachel Reid, the Human Rights Watch representative in Kabul, told the BBC.
"What matters more to Karzai is the support of fundamentalists and hardliners here in Afghanistan whose support he thinks he needs in the elections."
Women's groups say its new wording still violates the principle of equality that is enshrined in their constitution.
It allows a man to withhold food from his wife if she refuses his sexual demands; a woman must get her husband's permission to work; and fathers and grandfathers are given exclusive custody of children.

WANTED ACTORS AND ACTRESSES

Some occurrences in theatrical work are operating which hamper the development of one form -- usually theatre. Actors appearing in dramatic pieces suddenly get pirated by the more lucrative forms like tv and advertisements which give higher pay. Is there a way by which we can have an agreement among the media that those who are performing in one should finish their contract first before jumping to the other, and those companies who get them have to reimburse the previous organization to which the actor/actress used to be connected should they need their services immediately?

I think that give-and-take in the artforms have to be emphasized to really prosper and develop in our country.

EMMA S. OROZCO

WILLIE, NEXT KING OF COMEDY

Comedy is important in social life. It makes the people realize how flippant and serious life can be and therefore view it as a journey, not necessarily an end in itself. Very few comedians exist in our country because it is difficult to make people laugh.

However, comedians like Willie Nepomuceno exist tickling the audience with laughter, in order to provide a diversion from their monotonous life or to make them realize something very important without being given a sermon. They are capable of providing another angle of looking at life actually, and could make the students expand their imagination when faced with difficult problems in life, today and in the future. Moreover they show that human frailties like committing errors, being imperfect are traits that are normal to human beings and need not be sources of insecurities.

Willie Nepomuceno is the first and foremost intelligent stand-up comedian in our country appealing to all crowds, young and old, and all sexes without offending their sensibilities. His jokes do not laugh at the disabled and other weak sectors of our society. They are witty, done with finesse and exhibit etiquette, qualities that are educational for the young audience to know and most possibly to imitate later on. His stories make high class personalities human like us, fallible and not god-like that they could overpower and dominate us. He makes us feel that they are just like one of us, human and capable of making mistakes like those of FPJ and Erap.

His performances can be short or fast-paced providing a succession of humorous stories, short jokes (called "bits"), and one-liners. Sometimes he uses props but always has minus-one music for his songs. He has performed at nightclubs, bars, colleges and theaters, as well as celebrations of companies, regaling the audience with his off-beat treatment of any subject and topic. All writer, editor, performer and and director, he has staff that takes care of his technical needs.

In college, the study of drama includes tragedy and comedy distinguishing between the two and showing that both are important forms of literature and entertainment. By being introduced to comedy, the students will realize the deeper value of humour in life. They will learn to practice humour as a good defense in life.

Children would do well to know Willie Nepomuceno in person rather than as a featured tv or radio guest. Though projected as the main and only feature of this event his performance is a whole “menu” by itself rolled into one, speaking, joking, impersonating and singing directly to them.
His performance can educate on:
1. what is comedy;
2. being comical without being offensive;
3. knowing how to laugh at serious matters yet not departing from the fact that they have to be dealt with seriously;
4. knowing that comedy is as important as politics and all other fields of endeavor;
5. knowing the difference between high and low comedy and how they as students should aspire for more uplifting types of entertainment that will showcase humanity as humane yet humorous;
6. knowing what is solo performance and its being a good source of education and entertainment, and
7. Thus, raising their cultural taste as to what is good for their soul (ethics), mind and body.

HISTORIAN SPEAKS OUT

Word reached me last night that i'm being considered for a commission to write a Philippine history textbook. a meeting with the publishers will soon be scheduled. Offhand i feel honored. But it will also be a worthwhile effort only if it's about the history that our citizenry needs to know.

Instead of what events happened in the past?, it should rather focus on how have most of the people been living, and what factors determined it? what have been their patterns of thinking, behavior and interaction, and what factors determined them? how briefly or how long did those patterns last? what factors accounted for all the quick and the slow changes? what patterns of thinking, behavior and interaction are prevalent in our lives now? and what will they be in the coming decades and centuries?

Otherwise, my book would just be giving our students more trivia, more inconsequential details to memorize throughout a semester only to recall them only once -- during exams. Our sense of history should guide us, enlighten us with experiential lessons in our long paths toward upliftment and fulfillment, invigorate us with a well-deserved sense of pride as tempered by an honest sense of humility. Our collective sense of history should be the pillar of our collective sense of mission as a nation in the service of humanity. This is what Kamalaysayan exists for. This is what its members should be joining, and reamining in, this organization for.

Prof. Ed Aurelio C. "Ding" Reyes
Lead Founder and National Spokesman,
Kamalaysayan (Kaisahan sa Kamalayan sa Kasaysayan)
(Subic, Zambales 08-01-09)