Islam in the Middle Ages?

This from NPR's Morning Edition today:

KABUL SEEKS CONTROL OF WOMEN'S SHELTERS

Khatira, who goes by one name, says her husband was mentally ill and she fell prey to his brothers, who tried to force her into prostitution. She resisted.

"They tied my hands and feet," she says. "They shaved my head and burned me on my feet with an iron from the fire. They beat me on my head with a high-heel shoe; you can still see the mark."

Neighbors helped her flee, and she found her way to one of Kabul's battered women's shelters, run by a group called Women for Afghan Women. The shelter helped her get a divorce, but now her family considers her disgraced.

"During my time in the shelter nobody has visited me. When I see family visiting the other girls it makes me cry," she says.

Khatira's story is one of thousands of tales of abuse and torture told by Afghan women. And she's one of thousands of women put at risk, advocates say, by a proposed new law. The Afghan government says it will better serve women if the shelters are under strict control, but women's advocates say the law would turn shelters into prisons.

A copy of the draft law says that any woman trying to entering a shelter would first need the approval of a committee from eight government offices. She would be subject to a medical exam that might include a virginity test and essentially be confined to the shelter. The facilities would be run by the Ministry of Women's Affairs.

It's not just Islamic extremists --- terrorists --- who pose a problem. Somehow, Islam has become trapped in its past --- not unlike the Catholic Church with its resistance to married priests, despite the endless stream of abuse cases. Princeton's Bernard Lewis tried to explain it in his book: