It's just an safety progress because when you duell someone he is afk may he will be back in 3 minutes ... if its removed ... so you could kill everyone who is afk & leveling.
Hm ...
you can't really easily " kill everyone who is afk & leveling" at that. remember, there is a 1 min waiting time before you can be attacked. yes?
anyway, to soothe your worries about the afk thing, i also suggest that the waiting time for responding to a duel request be raised to 5 mins.
like, if someone wants to duel you while you are afk, he has to wait 5 mins before he can kill you which will definitely bore him to death. you happy now?

to summarize:
1. remove 3 min waiting time to duel the same person (as fixeus said)
2. increase duel response waiting time (click Ok or Cancel) to more than one minute (5 mins maybe?)