KARZAI, POLITICIANS OPPOSE SHIA FAMILY LAW

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 000931 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KDEM PGOV AF PREL PHUM SUBJECT: KARZAI, POLITICIANS OPPOSE SHIA FAMILY LAW REF: A. KABUL 837 ¶B. KABUL 845 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. President Karzai told SRAP Richard Holbrooke and JCS Chairman Adm. Mullen on April 5 that he will not publish the Shia Family Law in the official legal gazette, but will send it "back to Parliament" through a series of legal reviews involving civil society, the international community, and religious scholars. In separate conversations with various Afghan political leaders, Holbrooke emphasized US opposition to the law, signed by Karzai last month (reftels),and asked for leaders' advice on how best to prevent it from ever entering into force. End Summary. Karzai Describes Review Process -------------- ¶2. Karzai responded to SRAP's emphatic representation on the Shia Family Law that he had come to understand that the law would endanger global support for Afghanistan. Hence, after consulting with civil society organizations, and Shia clerics, he directed the Ministry of Justice to review the law and to consult with the US and other interested parties, including the Shia ulema council, and accommodate their concerns before "sending the law back to Parliament." After all required changes are incorporated, Karzai said he would sign the new version into law as a decree while Parliament is in recess (Parliament will be in recess from June to July and again in December). Opposition Leaders -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Presidential candidate and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani said Karzai's history of indecisiveness could provide helpful cover for the government to engage in a lengthy review of the law before it could be published in the official legal gazette. In the long-term, Ghani suggested those involved in drafting Shia jurisprudence should look at more moderate examples of Shia law developed in India, Pakistan, and Lebanon. The Iranian model used for Afghanistan's version was too conservative for most Afghan Shia, and was pushed by only a small group of fundamentalist Shia clerics. ¶4. (SBU) Lower House Speaker Yunus Qanooni claimed that international media had misunderstood the more controversial elements of the Shia Family Law. Qanooni, who had just returned from Norway and Sweden, said press there had mischaracterized the intent of the law and that human rights advocates in those countries had only selectively drawn from lengthy legislation to make the law seem worse than it was. SRAP had read the translated text of the law and countered that the media reports were accurate. He told Qanooni the law would have a "catastrophic" effect on NATO's ability to support Afghanistan if Karzai and other leaders did not stop the law from taking effect. Women MPs -------------- ¶5. (SBU) During a roundtable with female MPs, MP Shah Gul Rezai (Ghazni, Hazara) told Holbrooke and Mullen that she and many other women parliamentarians strongly opposed the law for its restrictions on the rights of women. She stressed the law did not represent the views of the broader Shia community. Rezai observed that many Shia women did not currently live under the societal restrictions the law would have codified, specifically citing Hazara women. She pointed out that Shia women occupied leadership positions in some communities, including the female mayor of Nili, capital of Dai Kundi province. ¶6. (SBU) Asked why MPs had allowed the law to move forward, MP Rezai said that "famous mullahs" (implying Ayatollah Mohseni) had backed the legislation. She added that there should have been a parliamentary commission assigned to review the law more closely, but there was insufficient interest across the Sunni-majority Parliament. ¶7. (SBU) MP Nasima Niyazi (Helmand, Pashtun) said she and most of her fellow women MPs had opposed the law, even though most Sunni MPs took the position that the law was Shia business. This sparked some disagreement among the group as the women argued among themselves regarding why they had not voted against the law. (In fact, only two female MPs voted against the law, outspoken reformers Fawzia Kofi and Shinkai Kharokhil. In general, male and female Shia MPs voted for the law in a show of unity, while other women voted for it out of fear of intimidation by backers of the law or, in the case of many Sunnis, a disinterest in Shia affairs.) KABUL 00000931 002 OF 002 ¶8. (U) SRAP's office cleared on this message. RICCIARDONE