It takes courage for anyone nowadays to defy the religious zealots whose baleful influence is rapidly extinguishing personal freedoms and human rights in Afghanistan. But it takes particular courage for a woman to speak out against the prevailing prejudice and misogyny that are, once again, depriving women of their rights, their dignity and their fundamental freedoms even in the capital city.

The demonstration by about two hundred Afghan women yesterday against a new law imposing Taleban-style restrictions on Shia women was an unprecedented display of bravery and principle. Carrying banners calling for “dignity in the law” and insisting that “Islam is justice”, they marched past a university attached to Kabul's largest Shia mosque, where a leading cleric has strongly backed the new law. They were jeered, stoned, spat upon and jostled. A furious mob of men snatched their banners, screamed abuse, tried to break through the police line and denounced the women as apostates.

The new “personal status” law signed by President Karzai last month is indeed an abomination. It applies only to the Shia, who make up around 15 per cent of the population, but returns them to the servile status imposed on all Afghan women by the Sunni Taleban during their five-year rule until 2001. Under its provisions, no woman is allowed to work, leave her house or receive education without permission from her husband. No wife can refuse her husband sex, which, the law ludicrously says, he may demand every fourth day. The provisions are a charter for domestic servitude, child marriage and marital rape.

They have already been widely denounced. President Obama has called them abhorrent. Human rights bodies say that they violate international agreements on the dignity of women. President Karzai ordered a review after an outcry from the Western allies, but there is little sign that he is ready to resist the religious extremists or defend the limited freedoms that women have enjoyed since the overthrow of the Taleban.

What is particularly repellent is the denunciation of these freedoms as a plot against Islam by Christians and the attempt to portray institutional misogyny as the heritage of patriotic Afghans. The dismal statistics reveal how bad the situation remains even now. Some 87 per cent of Afghan women are illiterate. Only 30 per cent of girls have access to education. One in three women experiences physical, psychological or sexual violence and every 30 minutes an Afghan woman dies during childbirth. Between 70 and 80 per cent of women face forced marriages. Their average life expectancy is 44 years.

On paper, progress seemed assured, even a year ago: women made up 27 per cent of Afghan MPs, women cast 43 per cent of the votes in 2005, more than 100,000 benefited from microfinance loans to set up businesses and 75 per cent said that they were better off than under the Taleban. But already opportunities are closing: fewer dare now go to work, the better educated are leaving and intimidation is taking a heavy toll.

This week the Taleban executed a young couple who had eloped and were handed over by their parents. In neighbouring Pakistan, the zealots of the Swat Valley are driving women indoors and closing down girls' schools. Across the region, women are again at risk.