Gender Equality And Its Effects On Women 's Rights

Before reading The Underground Girls of Kabul I assumed women in Afghanistan had at least some semblance of a meaningful life. I assumed female children had the opportunity to go to school. I assumed they were treated on a human level, and I assumed there was hope for equality in the not too distant future. None of these things seem to be the case. For the majority of women in Afghanistan your life is pre-determined from the moment you are born. “The ownership of an Afghan girl is literally passed on from one male—her father—to the one who becomes her husband. He will take over the ruling of her life, down to the smallest details if he is so inclined.”(Page 44).

The Taliban is an extremist Islamic group highly emphasizing a strong interpretation of sharia law that arose in the early 1990s after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Referencing the BBC article, a common belief holds that the Taliban first emerged in religious seminaries that preached a hard line of Sunni Islam. The Taliban’s promise to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the surrounding area was to restore peace and security using their interpretation of the sharia law once they were in power (“Who Are the Taliban?”). Along with the many new policies and regulations of society, there arose a new interpretation of the role of women in society. Women became very restricted and had to live in a way that was extremely submissive to men to the point where it was almost dehumanizing, as many would argue. Although the Taliban has been out of control in Afghanistan since December of 2001, remnants of their oppression towards women remain. In this paper, I will demonstrate the Taliban’s remaining effects in Afghan society regarding many aspects of everyday life, such as the workforce, education, healthcare, and human rights. To begin, I will give a brief overview of how Afghan women participated in society before the Taliban came to power. I will then provide information and examples that shed light on women’s life during Taliban rule. In the final section of this paper, I will describe how the lifestyle of women has changed as a result of the Taliban’s oppressive laws and

In Afghanistan, Women’s rights were very denied and completely dismissed. Women were treated horribly. They were beaten, abused verbally, and even killed. Under the rule of the Taliban, women were better off staying in the safety of their own homes.

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

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

Women are still being isolated today even though a new form of government is in use and has been fifteen years since the rule of the Taliban. “Life as an Afghan Woman” points out that “women are [still] often hidden and isolated. Islamic extremists insist that women and girls stay at home, and can only leave if they are fully covered and accompanied by a male relative.” Most women wear a burqa that completely covers their entire body, showing male dominance outside of the home as well. Women must cover themselves to avoid the possibility of men looking at them in an inappropriate way. Women have to dress in a head to toe burqa for the benefit of men. Also, the fact that girls live with their husband’s extended family often results in them being

“By balancing the scales of equality, women and men will have an equal chance to contribute both at home and the workplace, thereby enhancing their individual well-being, and that of society” (About Workplace Gender Equality). Throughout history, women continuously progressed to reach this equality. This is evident with the Women’s Right Movement which pushed to break social and economic barriers. Women went from focusing on domestic responsibilities to working in places normally reserved for men. At this day in age, it seems as though that balance would already be maintained considering how much was accomplished, however this is untrue. Women are predisposed to less opportunities within the workforce when compared to men.

After the war, the Taliban, a fundamentalist group, known for providing safe haven for Osama bin Laden, came to power. They were known for twisting Islamic law and filtering it to their needs. The Taliban showed no respect to women and despised them, giving them unjust laws with harsh consequences if broken. In the article, “Women in Afghanistan-The Back Story,” it’s stated that, “There were many other ways their rights were denied to them. Women were essentially invisible in public life, imprisoned in their home. In Kabul, residents were ordered to cover their ground and first-floor windows so women inside could not be seen from the street. If a woman left the house, it was in a full body veil (burqa), accompanied by a male relative: she had no independence.” Under the Taliban, women were locked up in their homes like prisoners, and not permitted to leave unless accompanied by a man. Women were already denied the right being involved with the war physically, and now they are being denied the right to actually leave their house physically. This “imprisonment” made it even harder for the women to be involved with the war, because they didn’t have the chance to go out and make a change when they were stuck in their homes. They couldn’t get involved with the war, or act on feminist rights because they didn’t have a chance! Because they were

Oppression of women, especially in the thirds world countries like Afghanistan have been an ongoing struggle. An Afghani woman’s roles and identity is strictly associated with her family and tribe, the woman is a part of society, but her identity does not belong to her it belongs to her family at large. Afghanistan is a traditional and religious countries, therefore Gender roles is clearly market in the Afghan society. Afghani women had a difficult road toward getting their liberty in society where male are superior to women in status. In the past four decades, Afghanistan has been under the rule of different political ideologies, the Soviet communism from 1979-1989 and the Taliban regime from 1996-2011. Both the Soviet Union and the Taliban oppressed women in one way or another, the systematic oppression of Afghani women portrayed them as passive members of the society.

Having always been interested in the history of women’s rights, the oppressive rule of the Taliban on Afghan women has always been an interesting topic to research. Prior to Taliban control of Afghanistan, women enjoyed living the freedom that they were granted. They were very crucial to the development of the Afghan society, but when the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan in 1996, the rights of Afghan women began to dwindle. Although they negatively affected Afghanistan, for instance, politically, economically, and socially, the major negative impact their rule had on socially specifically was the Afghan women’s rights.. Even though the Taliban claimed “that it was acting in the best interests of the women,” according to a report on the

Travesties are committed against women every day, in every country, in every city, town and home. In Afghanistan women are not only discriminated against, they are publicly reduced to animals. Women are deprived of basic human rights: they are not allowed to travel outside their homes without being completely covered by the traditional shroud-like burqa; they are not allowed to speak or walk loudly in public; they are not allowed to laugh or speak with other women; they are not allowed to attend school nor work; they are expected to be invisible; they are the ghosts of what were once educated, notable, and successful women. With their ruthless and extreme laws, the Taliban have effectively

Women are not treated the same as men in Afghanistan. The people in Afghanistan tend to believe that equality should not be given to women because women are only born to serve men and fulfil their wishes and commands. The disturbing fact is that not only men think this way but most women have the same thoughts too. Afghanistan is one of the most challenging places for women to live. Their lifestyle is enormously different from a female’s lifestyle in Great Britain. Beginning from the time they are born to the end of their lifetime, they are facing troubles on a daily basis. Girls are usually married off at a very young age because parents cannot afford to keep them. Once they are married they become young

Throughout the past few decades, the gender inequality discourse have became a dominant feature of international, national and local policy debate on the subject of economic development. This policy concern has emerged as an area of scholarly research which seeks to show that improving gender equity leads to economic growth.

Women have struggled to achieve gender equal rights. Feminist solidarity raises awareness of women’s issues and it gives empowerment to women to continue to fight from inequality and race discrimination. Maia Kotrosits states, “It was not just that we were different . . . it was that we each had a tremendous stake in our difference,” which indicates that women of different races have united to address the problems that they have experienced (Kotrosits 134). Consequently, they will continue to fight for their own equal rights because they deserve to be treated the same as men. The image by Dan Wynn conveys feminist solidarity against discrimination and violence against women, by displaying two women of different races with matching outfits, body language, and expression.