Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon says he has been assured by the Afghan government that it will remove "contentious clauses" from a proposed law that critics say legalizes marital rape.
Cannon said he spoke to the Afghan foreign minister, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, on Sunday.
"He reassured me that the law will not be implemented as it stands now, the more contentious parts of the law have been taken out, and the minister of justice in Afghanistan has the obligation to rewrite the law," Cannon told Â鶹´«Ã½net's Power Play.
The law, which would have only applied to the minority Shia community, would have made it illegal for women to refuse to have sex with their husband. Women would also need permission from a male relative to leave their own homes.
"It's extremely important that there will be respect of human rights as well as a respect of women's rights," Cannon said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai had previously vowed to "review" the law.
Sally Armstrong, a journalist and author who has written extensively on women's issues in Afghanistan, told Power Play that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has taken the lead on the issue among NATO members.
Armstrong said that only a few politicians spoke up against the Taliban's record on women's rights before the Sept. 11 attacks, including former Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, and current U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
But she said that because of the NATO mission in Afghanistan, leaders were swift in their condemnation.
"People acted with absolute outrage and it was Prime Minister Harper of Canada who led the way," Armstrong said of world leaders.
Harper denounced the Afghan law, after word of it broke just before last weekend's NATO summit.
"The equality of men and women goes to the heart of our values system and our engagement in that country and our opposition to the Taliban and the Taliban government," Harper said at the summit.
