Afghan Clerics Denounce Violence Against Women
Our own Solmaz Sharif, writing for womensenews.org on October 19, 2012:
Afghan women's safety activists say a new partnership with religious leaders can help stop Taliban attacks on girls and women that have left a Pakistani teen activist for girls just across the border in Swat Province undergoing brain surgery after a gunshot execution.
At an Oct. 10 conference in Kabul, the day after the Pakistani Taliban shot 14-year-old activist Malala Yousufzai, clerics denounced Taliban-style attacks on girls and women.
"Violence is found in a place where there is no understanding of religion and religious knowledge is low or absent," Mohammad Yousuf Niazi, minister of Hajj and Islamic affairs told conference participants. "I am asking the Islamic community to inform people and families about what the Quran had said and how it condemns the abuse of women."
The clerics' conference statement said that forced marriage and child marriage are against Sharia and encouraged people to cooperate with the education of female citizens.
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