Afghan women fight back

See Dexter Filkins' story, "Afghan Women Protest New Law on Home Life." It appeared on the front page of the New York Times today and follows up on this story about new Afghan laws permitting marital rape. Here's an excerpt from the more recent report:

About 300 Afghan women, facing an angry throng three times larger than their own, walked the streets of the capital on Wednesday to demand that Parliament repeal a new law that introduces a range of Taliban-like restrictions on women, and permits, among other things, marital rape.

It was an extraordinary scene. Women are mostly illiterate in this impoverished country, and they do not, generally speaking, enjoy anything near the freedom accorded to men. But there they were, most of them young, many in jeans, defying a threatening crowd and calling out slogans heavy with meaning.

Also, don't miss this editorial from yesterday's New York Times: "Women, Extremism and Two Key States." The two key states are Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Here is a link to an earlier, more heartening news report out of Afghanistan.