Afghan Women Essay

The Taliban had a large number of restrictions placed on the rights of Afghan women. They were not allowed to work anywhere outside of their home. This meant that a woman could not be a professional in any type of job. Women also could not deal with any male shopkeeper or doctors.

Education is one of the most important contributors to having a successful future. In developed countries such as North America boys and girls are fortunate enough to have access to an unbiased education system. Therefore, allowing children to have countless opportunities. However, in countries like Afghanistan girls are marginalized and neglected the right to learn. Afghanistan is a country of war, where women and girls are often the worst victims. In 2011, Afghanistan was known as the most dangerous place in the world for a girl to be born (Kissane). Malala Yousufzai, a female education activist was also a victim of war. Yousufazi was shot in the head and neck for advocating for girls and their rights to have access to education. Similarly, to Yousufzai many women in Afghanistan stand up for their entitlement to having equality. Those courageous women often become victims of abuse and are often killed. Investing in girls’ education is critical, not only is it life-altering for a girl’s future, but it’s also poses benefits to society. By allowing Afghan girls access to educating we are also promoting better socioeconomic s, a reduction in child marriages, and an improvement in mortality rates.

Today in the post –Taliban era, women still struggle with their rights. Resolutions were produced and rights for women have advanced since September 11th but in order to move forward, much work needs to be done. Hundreds of years of repression for Afghan women will take a lot longer than a few years to actually revolutionize. There is violence towards women that are not practicing traditions customs and fear retaliations from the Taliban. Customs are difficult to change as well as government policies. (Bora Laskin Law). In Afghanistan, religious and cultural values, politics, and an uncertain acting government have played a major part in the struggle for women’s rights.

The Constitution that was created in Afghanistan during the 1920’s, stated equal rights for women and men. In fact, during the year of 1959, new policies created educational and career opportunities and voluntary removal of having to wear the burka. Women’s roles become similarly equivalent to male roles; they had the opportunity to acquire knowledge from universities, and were provided jobs in industrial, business, and entertainment settings. The atrocities that came about during the Mujaheddin and Taliban control were unheard of years prior, when women lived in peace and prosperity

Growing up and living in Afghanistan as a woman has its challenges. Parents choose who can marry you and they choose everything for you. In this book, Laila and Mariam both show the struggles it is to be a girl, and how much disrespect they get in Afghanistan. Both Mariam and Laila are married to the same man, and he is abusive to both of them. They also live under Taliban rule, and the rules that they set are very unfair for women. In Khaled Hosseni’s novel, he has many different themes but the most prevalent one is of woman inequality, and that is shown through multiple accounts of abuse, disrespect, and unfairness.

The beginning of an Islāmic group started to take over Afghanistan in 1996, after the Soviet Union left Afghanistan. This group is known as the Taliban. The Taliban’s mission is to make an Islāmic government in Afghanistan. The Taliban started with Islāmic students from Pakistan. Then in “September 1996 the Taliban seized control of Kabul (Afghanistan’s capital) and carried out a strict interpretation or explanation of Islāmic Law”(Hayes NP). The Taliban killed the Afghan president, Mohammed Najibullah in Kabul. That is when the Taliban took over Afghanistan. The Taliban controlled 95% of Afghanistan. Then once the Taliban had taken over Afghanistan, they started announcing their restrictions, that were harsh against women.

During the mid 90’s, an Islamic fundamentalist group called the “Taliban” took control of central Afghanistan. This sudden regime change caused a catastrophic loss of civil liberties as well as civil disrupt throughout the entire country, causing many surges in Afghani immigrants. Political journalist of “The Taliban: War, Religion, and the New Order in Afghanistan” Peter Marsden, writes about how women in Afghanistan were forced to wear chakri 's in public, and could not leave the home without a male guardian. In afghanistan, women faced many internal barriers that violated their unalienable rights, and this in turn impeded their ability to evade from such violation through

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, is a book about what people in Afghanistan experienced throughout the Taliban and the war in Afghanistan. The book opened my eyes to see what people experienced during these events. The events that were happening were completely changing all aspects of their lives. The Taliban changed the lives of all people in Afghanistan. All of this information was all foreign and unfamiliar to me and I imagine it would be to most Americans. It is important to attempt to understand the changes and experiences people went through, even if they do not directly relate to us. Although all residents were impacted during this time, it is important to understand how the Taliban altered the lives of women residing in Afghanistan.

As odd as the restrictions women had, the punishments for violations were even more unbelievable. To humiliate the women, most of the punishments were available to be seen by the public. The penalties for broken laws were often held public in sports stadiums, town squares, or other densely populated areas for everyone to see. For a minor infraction, oftentimes the one who committed the transgression was often beaten until unconscious. A woman once had her thumb removed because her thumb nail was exposed, and when the Taliban guard saw this, she was taken into the town square to have her exposed thumb taken off. The things that the Taliban do to innocent citizens are cruel, and they should be the ones being reprimanded, not the other way around. In general, many of the punishments that the Taliban give out to women are, in most cases, much too excessive for such insignificant “crimes”. (Delcan Walsh)

Before the rise of the Taliban in the early 1990s, women in Afghanistan were mostly treated as equals and with respect. Though women were still expected to be

Khaled Hosseini presents the struggle Afghan women go through every day by discussing honour, marriage and the place of women in society in Afghanistan.

The fall of the Taliban in 2001 opens the door for international forces led by the United States. During this vastly changing political landscape of the country, women’s rights have been exploited by different groups for political gain, and sometimes great improvements were made, but more often women were left forgotten and abused as something that can be loosely negotiated and frequently forgotten altogether in favor of terms that were deemed more pressing than women’s rights. But it has not always been like this for Afghan

A view of the mistreatment of women during the Taliban regime

Since the beginning of time, women have had to fight rigorously for basic human rights. In the western stratosphere, those human rights were achieved in the early 20th century, but in a lot of eastern countries the battle for the women is just beginning, or worse hasn't even started. Women in Afghanistan have been subject to heinous circumstances, even though their religion, Islam "demanded that men and women be equal before God,"(Qazi). Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner offers a very insightful view of the governing politics of Afghanistan pre-Taliban regime and during the Taliban regime, and the differing situation of women in both those eras. Based on the book and outside research, it is evident that the situation of women in

The Taliban became responsible for punishing those who committed crimes by killing the criminals. These acts started a small fear in the Afghanistan people. Soon, the Taliban group became a well armed and well funded militia with the support of a province in Pakistan. As soon as fear stirred among the Afghani people, the president of Afghanistan, Burhanuddin Rabbani, tried to create an alliance against the Taliban in Kabul, the capitol. This alliance fell through, and the president eventually fled Afghanistan. In December of 1995, the Taliban took hold of Afghanistan as a result.