WASHINGTON, Dec 19: The United States on Thursday raised concerns about the extent to which religious freedom is protected in Afghanistan’s draft constitution, currently under debate in a grand council in Kabul.

US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom John Hanford, said questions over freedom of worship in the constitution centred on interpretations of the language in the draft.

“Freedom of worship is guaranteed to a point. The constitution says followers of other religions are free to perform their religious ceremonies within the limits of the law,” Hanford said.

“But the point that we’ve made is: What are ceremonies? And there’s an awful lot that has to do with religious practice that you wouldn’t necessarily call a ceremony.”

Mr Hanford also said the United States was concerned the current draft of the constitution said no law could be contrary to the “sacred religion of Islam”.

“Who is going to interpret this clause and how are they going to interpret it?.” Hanford asked, as he rolled out the State Department’s annual report on international religious freedom.

“Freedom of religion is neither denied, but it’s certainly not fully guaranteed.”

Women’s rights: Women at the convention have called for the document to enshrine equal rights as the assembly was set Friday to discuss divisive issues such as the power of the president.

Article 22 of the draft document says the “citizens of Afghanistan have equal rights and duties before the law,” but does not explicitly state that women have equal rights.

Article 22 should be changed to: “Afghan men and women have equal rights and duties before the law,” Nadira, a woman delegate from northern Balkh province, told reporters Thursday.

“We want the explicit mention of ‘women and men’ in every article where the words ‘Afghan citizens’ are used,” said fellow delegate Noorya Wisal from southeastern Ghazni province.

Some 100 women are among the 502 delegates taking part in the historic loya jirga (grand assembly) in Kabul to debate and, if all goes to plan, ratify the draft constitution which will pave the way for the country’s transition to democracy at elections scheduled for June 2004.

The delegates have been divided into 10 groups to discuss the controversial document and debate the country’s future form of government.

Some have however called for a boycott of the convention unless the key issue of whether to have a presidential or parliamentary system is debated by the whole gathering.

Deep rifts within Afghan society were exposed Wednesday when Malalai Joya, a female delegate from western Farah province, provoked uproar at the gathering by criticising the powerful mujahedin (former anti-Soviet fighters) attending the convention and calling for them to be put on trial for plunging the country into four years of civil war between 1992 and 1996.

Afghan soldiers had to mount the stage to keep order as dozens of angry mujahedin delegates rushed at it, demanding she be expelled.

Joya’s fellow female delegates protested and prevented her from being expelled.

“She should have observed the sensitivity of the session and not used strong offensive language but still we supported her and didn’t permit her expulsion,” said Wisal.—AFP