The parliament failed to pass a law banning violence against women on Saturday, May 18. The draft of this law was drafted three years ago and President Karzai made applicable by decree. Presently, all security and judicial organs have to follow and apply the law in cases regarding violence against women. He also confirmed that if the law appears contradictory to other ruling laws, government can ignore the other law and implement the law banning violence against women.

After passing three years from the inception of this law, parliament puts it in its agenda to discuss its pros and cons and approve it. But not very unexpectedly, on Saturday the law found oppositions in the lower house of the parliament. Many MPs voiced out that some articles of the law were against the Islamic Shariah. Religious MPs objected to at least eight articles in the legislation, including keeping the legal age for women to marry at 16, the existence of shelters for domestic abuse victims and the halving of the number of wives permitted to two.

Obaidullah Barekzai, an MP from the Southeast Urozgan province, said, "It is wrong that a woman and man cannot marry off their child until she is 16”.  He argued against all age limits for women, citing historical figure by Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq, a close companion of the Prophet Mohammad, and the first Islamic Khalifa after the demise of Prophet Mohammad, who married off his daughter at age seven.

According to some quotes, the Islamic Shariah allows the head of the household to marry his girl at age 9, means right after she starts menstruation. Even some quotations emphasize that a girl should marry as early as she does experiences her first period in her husband’s house.

Same is the case with choice of marriage. According to some quotations girls cannot marry on their own choice or without the consent of their parents.

Regarding shelters for domestic abuse victims, however there are not direct quotation but religious scholars find them against Shariah according to their own interpretation. Because they believe that

shelters motivate women to escape from home and commit for instance adultery then end up to government shelters which pave the way for spread of moral corruption.

In spite of such quotations, the so-called Islamic intellectuals are arguing that such quotations should be reassessed and reinterpreted. Against such quotations there are other quotations which give far larger space for women. It is clear if the discussions continue, whether the law is against or pro Islamic Sharia, the destiny of the women will remain unclear. If it gets the approval of majority of MPs who may have accepted modern laws, it can be a legal guarantee for women in the future.