VZCZCXRO9940
PP RUEHDBU RUEHPW
DE RUEHBUL #0931/01 1050505
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 150505Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8382
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

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