The law suppressing women's revulsion in Afghanistan

When I first heard about Afghanistan's new law sanctioning rape in marriage my first thought was can Afghan men really be that desperate?

In Afghanistan, as you may recall, a man can legally have as many as four wives at a time. And in the event he grows tired of any one of them, divorce is shockingly easy. Given that the deck already seems to be stacked so much a man's favor, how bumbling can Afghan men be that they also need to have what goes on in their bedrooms legislated?

Ayatollah Mohseni, the leader of the Shia community who demanded this law, tries to explain. While he remained silent on the local seduction techniques, he did suggest that the law arose out of the extreme gender inequality that prevails in the country. Due to the widespread illiteracy among Afghan women, and their lack of work opportunity (it doesn't help that they cannot leave the house without their husband's permission) a woman cannot be asked to pull her weight financially. As he poses the problem: "For all these expenses can't we at least give the right to a husband to demand sex from his wife after four nights?" (AP).

Maybe they wouldn't have to rape their wives if they freed them.