The Shia Personal Status Law, also known as the Shia Family Law, is a law of Afghanistan that was approved in February 2009 with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's signature. The law, which was written in collaboration with Shiite religious leaders, codified customs relating to marriage, family, and inheritance.[1] The law only affects the Shia denomination of Afghanistan, encompassing approximately six million people.[2] Family issues had previously been decided by customary law.
While the law faced heavy international criticism for its perceived sexism, Afghan legislators who supported the law argued that it protected women's role in society.[2] Female legislators and women's rights groups complained about a lack of transparency and limited opportunity for debate in the process of the drafting and passing the law. Shia officials claimed that the law preserved the distinctions which are inherent between the Shia and Sunni Muslim religions of Afghanistan.[3]
Portions of the law pertaining to women's obligation in marriage made international headlines. The United Nations Development Fund for Women, NATO, Canada, United States, Germany and other nations came forward asking for a review of the law, as it was felt that it oppresses Shiite women, taking away many of their rights in a marital relationship. Most controversially, Article 132 specifies that Shia women are required to sexually submit to their husband's demands and are expected to have intercourse with their husband at least once every four days except in case of illness, in what has been described as spousal rape.[4][5][6][3]
Worse was invoked but never defined (see the help page).