That Afghanistan law essentially robbing women of anything resembling autonomy over their own bodies is worse than I thought: it’s charmingly focused on the Shiite minority. If ever there’s a benchmark for U.S. aid crying out to be written, here it is. This is a U.S. client state, where U.S. influence is tremendous. To those who’d rejoinder that the U.S. shouldn’t interfere in Afghan governance, it’s worth remembering that this law didn’t exist until President Hamid Karzai fretted about losing an election scheduled for this summer.

Today Afghan women, about 300 of them, protested the law in Kabul. Dexter Filkins of the New York Times has this account:

The reaction was immediate. Hundreds of students from the madrassa, most but not all of them men, poured into the streets to confront the demonstrators.

“Death to the enemies of Islam!” the counterdemonstrators cried, encircling the women. “We want Islamic law!”

The women stared ahead and kept walking.

A phalanx of police, some of them women, held the crowds apart.

What have you done recently that’s half as brave?

Crossposted to The Streak.