Rollback of Women's Rights: Not Just in Afghanistan
Polygamy, stoning of adulterers, virginity testing, and laws that protect batterers are on the rise in increasingly conservative nations.
An Afghan law that protects perpetrators of domestic violence, new sharia criminal laws in Brunei that allow stoning, sexual assaults in Arab Spring countries, and proposed "virginity tests" in Indonesia.
These are just a few examples of a rollback of women's rights in recent years, even where revolutions and political transitions have been hailed in the West.
Soon after it arrived on his desk, President Hamid Karzai sent Afghanistan's controversial new domestic violence law back to parliament, demanding changes.
But the law, which its detractors say makes it nearly impossible to prosecute perpetrators of domestic violence, remains a threat to women in a society where women's rights appear to be eroding as Western powers retreat.
"There are two major problems with this law,
