Afghanistan Women Essay

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.

Novels, fictional or nonfictional, can be used to express opinions in ways that are complex. Stories allow authors to convey a message through the lives of the characters. More specifically, renowned authors Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, and Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns, use the stories of several characters to communicate their opinions regarding various social issues such as child abuse, mental instability, capital punishment, and gender inequality. Although both authors never directly state their opinions about the issues, they use the character’s experiences to demonstrate their arguments. Even though In Cold Blood is a mystery novel about a murder, author Truman Capote focuses on the actual murderers throughout the majority of the story.

In 2010 a young Afghan women had her nose and ears cut off. Aesha Mohammadzai, first appeared on the cover of time magazine in 2010, shared her story on how her husband and in-laws cut off her nose and ears as punishment for trying to run away. Mohammadzai said: “Every day I was abused by my husband and his family. Mentally and physically; Then one day it became unbearable so I ran away." Three years later Mohammadzai began her reconstructive surgery. Aesha Mohammadzai now lives with a foster family, and is studying English in school. A true inspiration to Afghan women, Aesha Mohammadzai tells women who are being abused to stay strong and never lose hope (Phillip Caulfield.2013). This is just one of the many common punishments Afghan women receive. Mohammadzai is proof that still in today’s society women in Afghanistan are still suffering with extreme punishments. The life expectancy for a woman in Afghanistan is 44, one of the lowest in the world (Life as an Afghan Women.2013). Throughout the years, women have been forced to live in fear because of the way they have been treated. The consequences of punishments are not balanced with the actions that are performed, and women fight to hold their own. Afghan women have struggled with extreme, cruel and violent punishments. Women’s punishments are the result of the loss of their basic human rights.

I do not agree at all with how women are being treated in Afghanistan. They are being put in jail for getting out of bad situations and the government is calling it “moral crimes.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that reporting if someone’s husband raped me is a crime against his wife. In the article, it says, “A woman named Gulnaz was jailed and sentenced to 12 years in prison after reporting she was raped by her cousin's husband. Her daughter was the product of the rape.” That is absolutely ridiculous. Why should that poor women be punished because her husband decided to rape her cousin’s cousin? If I was her, I would fought for my rights even if it killed me. It’s also disgusting how women are forced into marriage, then thrown

There are also 1.5 million widows in Afghanistan from their husbands dying in armed conflicts and because the older husbands often die before their young bride does. The average age of the widows are around 35, 35 year old women with little or no education with usually 4 or more children to support on their own but sometimes when the husband dies the widow is then married to one of his brothers so the family can take care of them and the kids but widows who can’t marry their dead husbands brother are often forced to beg or go through prostitution to support their kids. Women and girls aren’t allowed outside unless they are completely covered or they have to stay home and they have to go with a male relative if they go out in public and since the women are isolated in the house unless they are fully covered and with a male relative the extended family of their husband often treat them like servants/slaves making their isolation

1. Abu Lughod argues that the “liberation” from burqas, wanted by American women for Afghan women, is an extension of colonialism and western domination because the western women fail to understand what liberation is for the Afghan women. Western women think that the Afghan women are unhappy with their religion because it physically restricts them. On the contrary, Afghan women like their burqas because they feel it brings them closer to Allah. They also culturally disagree with the openness of American fashion. The idea that western women do not take into account the Afghan woman’s perspective on life, and automatically assume that they are trapped by their way of life, can be compared to America’s way of “helping” nations that they believe

Among the different narratives used to justify military intervention by the Bush administration one of the most prominent was the narrative of women being oppressed by men (Deylami, 2013 :180). The vision of women as victims of the Taliban regimes was indeed used to point out to the necessity for an American intervention in Afghanistan. In his speeches and addresses to the nation, George W. Bush made constant references to Muslim women, insisting particularly on them being “not allowed to attend school” (September 20, 2001), “executed in Kabul’s soccer stadium” and “beaten for wearing socks that are too thin” (November 10, 2001) as well as “prisoners in their homes” (September 11, 2006). Similarly, his wife, Laura Bush, on a speech to the nation on November 17, 2001, where she used twenty times the word ‘women’ also put a strong emphasis on the situation of Muslim women in Afghanistan. Throughout that speech, she for example stated that Afghan women “have been denied access to doctors when they are sick”, “cannot work outside the home” or “leave when they are homes by themselves” (Bush L., 2001). She further argued that “the brutal oppression of women is a central goal to the terrorists” (ibid).

The world is a big place, with different cultures, surprise, not every culture has football, skinny jeans, or superhero movies. Abu-Lughod an Anthropologist warns against the use of using cultural relativism when dealing with “injustice” with the women under the Taliban. Abu-Lughod states that, can we only free Afghan women to be like us or might we have to recognize that even after "liberation" from the Taliban, they might want different things than we would want for them(16)? Some people don't want to follow the fads of western culture, they might enjoy the culture that they grew up with. As Americans and people, in general, we have a cultural relativist approach with those that are different than us. We want them to follow are culture since

Afghanistan is by far one of the most challenging places in the world to be a woman. During the rule of the Taliban in 1996 until 2001, women were treated with the upmost disrespect, worse than during any other leadership in the history of Afghanistan. They were living in a misogynistic society were they were confined to living in a house unless escorted by a male companion. They were not able to work or allowed to seek medical assistance from a male doctor. Under the Taliban regime, women are also forced to cover themselves completely from head to toe, even covering their eyes. Not only have these women lost their self worth but they have also lost any ounce of self-identity they had left.

In Afghanistan, 94% of uneducated women believe it is acceptable for a man to abuse his wife making the country the highest approval rate than anywhere else in the world (Text 1). 15 to 19 year old Afghan women are more likely to disapprove of these abuses thus exhibiting change within the perspective of women in younger generations. Although younger generations may have a change in perspective, no change can occur unless it is desired throughout many generations and different groups of people. The Afghan culture shaped women’s outlook on change; since their culture is uniquely oppressive to women, women believe this is the way they were meant to be treated. Americans should not help liberate women in Afghanistan because the influence of change has to come from within the country and has to be desired in order for that change to occur.

The history of Afghanistan reflects its patriarchal nature; mostly men and their actions are recorded in the history, which leaves women without a space. The women’s role in Afghanistan’s history is a work in progress; nevertheless women have played an influential and significant role. Women’s contribution is building the Afghan society have not been well document, but Afghani women ricked their life in defending their country from invaders, and educated the next generation of both men and women. The constitution of 1923 gave women equal rights; relatively speaking women had agency and autonomy. Afghan people had progressive attitude toward women and equality, but the Soviet invasion and emergence of the Taliban change the course of the history.

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

Women does not have rights in Afghanistan. Each country has a different traditional for women. Women rights is valid in some country, and some not. The women in Afghanistan treated differently from women in USA

According to (Amiri et al, 2004), to create sustainable progress, support for women’s rights and roles must be entrenched within Afghan culture, history, and religion. With women again involved in government, pushing women’s issues such as health, education and employment, it is hoped that women in Afghanistan or any other country will never be subjected to such oppression every again. Women will play a pivotal role in the rebuilding the social