AFGHANISTAN: Afghan president Hamid Karzai yesterday called on the country's Islamic clerics to help stop forced marriages of young girls. At a religious gathering in Kabul, Mr Karzai urged Afghan scholars to follow the lead of Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, who earlier this month termed forced marriages un-Islamic and said violators should be jailed.
"Last week I became very happy when I heard the Ulema [ scholars'] fatwa by the brotherly country and heart of Islam, Saudi Arabia," he told the assembly, which included some women. "In this fatwa they mentioned that forced marriages of girls is unjust in Islam. We have similar problems in Afghanistan. I hope that the noble Afghan Ulema issues a similar fatwa like the Saudi Ulema to end the oppression of Afghan women and girls." He said some Afghan women were still oppressed 3 years after US-led forces overthrew the radical Taliban government. - (Reuters)