Medieval Minds

The Prime Minister of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai has proved himself to be a backward nutcase by trying to stealthily introduce a law forbidding women to refuse to have sex with their husbands and force them to get their spouses' permission before leaving the house, looking for a job, going to the doctor or receiving education. Naturally this has caused international uproar, as well it should, and I am pleased to say that Karzai has withdrawn the proposal under the pressure that came in from all sides, especially from Gordon Brown, who said "I made it absolutely clear to the president that we could not tolerate that situation. You cannot have British troops fighting, and in some cases dying, to save a democracy where that democracy is infringing human rights.” This is the first time in ages that I have been proud of him. Well said, Mr Brown, well said. Karzai has responded by saying that the law has been “misinterpreted by the West” and that the law in fact acts to “protect women”. This is a classic example of the clash between modern and medieval perspectives. This kind of thinking is not simply different from the West, but mirrors the West exactly as it was around 500 years ago. This time pocket which surrounds many thinkers like Karzai exists not only because Islam is 500 years younger than Christianity, but because in the Middle East conservative religious leaders held more influence than was perhaps sensible to allow, whereas the West had the good sense to tell their religious zealots where they could stick their backward dogmas and hateful interpretations.