‘Who knew what when and who reported what when to which?’ (II)

Getting back to Bob Rae’s question of a couple weeks ago, Jessica Leeder traces the creation and awareness of Afghanistan’s so-called rape law.

The law that exploded Afghan women’s rights onto the world stage began in obscurity two years ago, when it was published as a proposal in a magazine for Shia clerics.

From there, it was circulated to the Ministry of Justice, where it began its bureaucratic progress into law.

At that point, few outside the Afghan government were paying attention. But inside the country, news of the legislation raised eyebrows. Months before President Hamid Karzai quietly signed it into law, legal activists in Kabul sounded alarms about its content to international stakeholders, but got nowhere, they say.