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KATY CLARK: I'm Katy Clark, and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. President Obama is presenting his new plans for the war in Afghanistan at the NATO summit this weekend. There'll be lots of discussion among NATO leaders about troop levels and militant threats. But another story from Afghanistan is grabbing some headlines at the same time. It's about a new family law that President Hamid Karzai signed recently. It regulates marital life among Shiites in Afghanistan. Critics say it undermines women's rights, to put it mildly. The legislation reportedly says a woman must have her husband's permission to leave the house. It also gives the husband the right to demand sex from his wife. Sultana Parvanta is a former government official in Afghanistan. She now works as Chancellor of a medical university there. Ms. Parvanta, what is your reaction to this law and what's been the wider reaction there in Kabul?

SULTANA PARVANTA: Well, my personal reaction is I'm just totally devastated by this announcement. It is a real undermining of the small gains that we've made in the women's rights movement here. Afghan women needed support, and this is just pulling the rug under our feet. So I'm very upset, personally, and I'm surprised that it has gone through. And it went through so quietly – we just didn't even know it was happening, frankly. And I heard that even women in Parliament find it without reading it. It was pushed through in such a rush. And women – everyone I've talked to, even Afghan men in the past few days, they have been upset. And it's just one more point to see that things aren't going the way people want.

CLARK: President Karzai is up for re-election in Afghanistan in August, and some reports are suggesting that he may have signed this bill to please the country's hardline conservatives. What do you think about that?

PARVANTA: Yes. He did that. I think that he's trying to bring in the constituents from the very far right, and I think he's making a huge mistake. I think people of Afghanistan are not people of 10 years ago and 15 and 30 years ago. These are young people who have gone to other countries. They were immigrants of other countries. They have come back. The want to work, they want to build, they want to express -- and for him to have done that on the sly like that was just very unprofessional. It was very unkind of him. And I can't imagine that he would gamble women's freedom and rights, the little that is here, for a political gain. And I think, Katy, it's going to backfire on him big time.

CLARK: I'm just wondering if there's been a lot of international outcry about this new law. And as its details become public, there will undoubtedly be more. I'm wondering if that will have an impact on this law, if the government there might decide to reverse course?

PARVANTA: Well, there are two ways of looking at it. One is that women in Afghanistan really appreciate the support. And number two is the Afghan government better listen to this. You know? And I think the West has a right to ask a question. I mean, right now, it's the Western help, it's the Western generosity, it's the Western support that makes this country livable at this point and there's a modicum of peace. So actually the West has absolutely every right to not only ask but to demand, but to ask accountability – to say “Why? For what reason this is going backwards?”

CLARK: Sultana Parvanta is Chancellor of Churah Medical University in Afghanistan. Thank you so much.

PARVANTA: You're very welcome, Katy. It was delightful talking to you. Thanks for this conversation.

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