Women of the Afghan War
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You use religion, you use culture, you use tradition, you use gender to keep the power, to keep control. Under the Taliban women were banned from going to school and working. They were not allowed to leave their homes without a male relative or be seen in public without a burqa. For defying the regime's repressive laws, women were openly flogged and executed.
But 13 years after the fall of the Taliban, and despite the influx of billions of dollars in development aid, many Afghan women are still living in terror.
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A report by Global Rights estimates that almost 90 percent of women experience physical, sexual or psychological abuse or forced marriage. Overwhelmingly, it is their families who are committing these crimes. When Mariam, 25, got married five years ago, she never imagined that she would end up in a shelter. I'd have children and live a happy life. But she says the abuse began almost immediately. Without warning, her husband would erupt into violent rages, at times threatening her with a loaded gun or dragging her by her hair through their home.
When she tried to seek help from the police, they released her husband after a few hours. Even her parents refused to help her, returning her to her in-laws after assurances that she would not be beaten. Mariam says her husband was diagnosed with a mental illness and prescribed medication.
But the torment continued. I was so tired. Most of the time I didn't even have the energy to defend myself and nobody was there to defend me," she said, showing no emotion. Mariam and the other women at the shelter are the lucky ones. For now, at least, they are safe. But there are only 14 protection centres across Afghanistan and most are in urban areas.
Are Afghan women better off after a decade of war?
Many women simply cannot reach them. But even these few shelters are under threat. Foreign governments and donors are cutting back on funding as the international community pulls out of Afghanistan. And the national government is not filling in the gap. There are also powerful leaders within the country who want the shelters to close. I have never lived a good life here [in Afghanistan]. Not as a girl, not as a woman, not even as a mother. They open the gates to social problems like AIDS. Hanafi and other lawmakers have also fought legislation that increases punishment for crimes against women.
The Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women EVAW banned and set new penalties for underage and forced marriage, rape, forced prostitution and other abuses. But it was only passed into law through a presidential decree. They are not there to think that every human being is equal," she said.
Back at the shelter, Mariam is torn between standing up for her rights and securing a future for her children. Her one-year-old son still lives with her husband and she is now nine months pregnant with her second child. Her husband admitted to beating her, and tried to justify it by saying the abuse was never serious. So one day I hit her. Without an income or a place to live, Mariam's lawyer at the shelter says a court is likely to grant custody of the children to her husband despite his violent history. Her parents have refused to take her in, and she has no other options. It is a problem that almost all the women at the shelter face.
They may have had the courage to leave their abusive families, but where will they go now? In February , Afghanistan passed a law that includes a provision that limits the ability of government to compel some family members to be witnesses to domestic violence. Human Rights Watch described the implementation of the Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women as "poor," noting that some cases are ignored. In March Farkhunda Malikzada , a year-old Afghan woman, was publicly beaten and slain by a mob of hundreds of people in Kabul on a false accusation of Quran desecration.
Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch [3] [35] and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom [4] have expressed concern at women's rights in the country. According to latest reports, Afghanistan ranks as one of the top worst countries for women. Habiba Sarabi became the first female governor in Afghanistan. She also served as Minister of Women's Affairs.
Azra Jafari became the first female mayor of Nili , the capital of Daykundi Province. In , Niloofar Rahmani became the first female pilot in the Afghan Air Force pilot training program to fly solo.
Women of the Afghan War
In , a year-old Negin Khpolwak became Afghanistan's first female music conductor. The most popular traditional work for women in Afghanistan is tailoring, and a large percentage of the population are professional tailors working from home. Some women became entrepreneurs by starting own businesses. For example, Meena Rahmani became the first woman in Afghanistan to open a bowling center in Kabul. Because Afghanistan has a struggling economy overwhelmed with massive unemployment and poverty, women often cannot find work where they receive sufficient pay.
Of the 80 percent of Afghans employed in the agriculture field or similar occupations, 30 percent of them are women.
Women of the Afghan War: Deborah Ellis: bahana-line.com: Books
In terms of percentage women rank high in the fields of medicine and media, and are slowly working their way into the field of justice. Because women are still highly encouraged to consult a female physician when they go to the hospital, nearly fifty percent of all Afghans in the medical profession are women. Currently there are more than ten television stations that have all female anchors as well as female producers. However, even the women that are given the opportunity to have careers have to struggle to balance their home life with their work life, as household tasks are seen as primarily female duties.
Women began to be more restricted after Hekmatyar was integrated into the Islamic State as Afghan Prime Minister in Women in the Middle East: Most Viewed September 21, News Release. Human Rights Watch described the implementation of the Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women as "poor," noting that some cases are ignored. Martine marked it as to-read Jun 25, We would like to thank Gulam Sadiq Qasemi and the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Kabul for allowing us to record some of the background tracks used in this film. Lists and categories Lists Articles Feminists by nationality Literature American feminist literature Feminist comic books Conservative feminisms Countries by women's average years in school Ecofeminist authors Feminist art critics Feminist economists Feminist philosophers Feminist poets Feminist rhetoricians Jewish feminists Muslim feminists Feminist parties Suffragists and suffragettes Women's rights activists Women's studies journals Women's suffrage organizations.
Since the economy is so weak, very few women can afford to hire domestic helpers, so they are forced to take care of all the household work primarily on their own. Education in Afghanistan is very poor but slowly improving. The literacy rate for females is merely Over , students are enrolled in different universities around the country. In the early twentieth century, education for women was extremely rare due to the lack of schools for girls. Occasionally girls were able to receive an education on the primary level but they never moved past the secondary level.
At these schools, girls were taught discipline, new technologies, ideas, and socialization in society. Kabul University was opened to girls in and by there was an estimated , girls in schools across Afghanistan. Unfortunately, marriage at a young age added to the high drop out rate but more and more girls were entering professions that were once viewed as only being for men. However, in the after the civil war and the takeover by the Taliban, women were stripped of these opportunities and sent back to lives where they were to stay at home and be controlled by their husbands and fathers.
During the Taliban regime, many women who had previously been teachers began secretly giving an education to young girls as well as some boys in their neighborhoods, teaching from ten to sixty children at a time. News about these secret schools spread through word of mouth from woman to woman. Each day young girls would hide all their school supplies, such as books, notebooks and pencils, underneath their burqas to go to school. At these schools, young females were taught basic literary skills, numeracy skills, and various other subjects such as biology, chemistry, English, Quranic Studies, cooking, sewing, and knitting.
Many women involved in teaching were caught by the Taliban and persecuted, jailed, and tortured. The Taliban are still opposed to education for Afghan boys and girls. They are burning down schools, killing students and teachers by all kinds of means, including chemical warfare. For example, in June , fifteen suspects were detained by Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security NDS "in connection with the serial anti-school attacks in northern Afghanistan.
In the last decade Afghan women have participated in various types of sports including futsal, football, and basketball. In Afghanistan held its first marathon; among those who ran the entire marathon was one woman, Zainab, age 25, who thus became the first Afghan woman to run in a marathon within her own country.
Afghanistan is a patriarchal society where it is commonly believed that men are entitled to make decisions for women, include those pertaining to engagement and marriage. The country has a high total fertility rate , at 5. Arranged marriages are very common in this part of the world.
After a marriage is arranged, the two families sign an engagement contract that both parties are socially and culturally obligated to honor. It is common among low-income families for the groom to pay a bride price to the bride's family. The bride price is viewed as compensation for the money that the bride's family has had to spend on her care and upbringing. In certain areas females are sometimes bartered in a method of dispute resolution called baad that proponents say helps avoid enmity and violence between families, although the females themselves are sometimes subject to considerable violence both before and after marrying into a family through baad.
The practice of baad is considered illegal in Afghanistan. Under the Afghan law, "if a woman seeks a divorce then she has to have the approval of her husband and needs witnesses who can testify in court that the divorce is justified. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Women's rights in Afghanistan Women of Afghanistan in Women's suffrage Muslim countries US. First Second Third Fourth.
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You can help by adding to it. Child marriage in Afghanistan. The New York Times. Retrieved December 5, Women in the Middle East. Aletta, Institute for Women's History.
Retrieved 2 December The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan. Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. A History of Struggle and Survival 1st ed. Women in the Middle East: Afghanistan and the Taliban. Retrieved 5 September Retrieved 23 March Retrieved 9 August Retrieved 29 March Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Retrieved 30 November Retrieved 10 November