Summary: The Underground Girls Of Kabul

Amira Arzu, an Afghan teenager, was only 15 years old when she was forced into an arranged marriage. She was kind hearted, intelligent, elated, and humorous until one day this was all taken away. December 15th, 2016 she was on her way to school in Afghanistan not knowing that her parents were driving her to a Mosque, the Shrine of Ali, to get married to her future husband, Ahmed Akmal. A few days later she found herself on the street Taimani in Kabul, Afghanistan. Amira ran past workers ordering from street carts, women with their children, men in trucks honking at one another, and many looked at her uncertainty as she was running through the streets of Kabul. At the time, she was wearing a blue floral hijab, jeans, and a dress as in Afghanistan you cannot wear a dress without covering your legs. Many deduced that she was without her husband on the streets of Kabul, which is not normally the case, but Amira was different from the other wives and arduously wanting to figure out an escape.

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

"And in Afghanistan, 85% of women are illiterate and 50% of girls are married or engaged by the age of 12."("Life as an Afghan women”, n.d. para 1)

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

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.

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

With this in mind one can see how maintaining family connection in Afghanistan is the best way to reach success. Men and women have different roles within these households as well. Ultimately their actions bring honor or shame onto their family based off of these roles, for instance while men work to provide income, women receive great honor through being a good wife and mother (Fluri, 2011). These methods gaining honor or shame often stem from their Muslim religion which carries over into their social lives. Afghan women typically wore long baggy clothing such as burqas as they are modest and provided them with a sense of spatial privacy (Fluri, 2011). They also wore their clothing such as a hijab is seen necessary as a sign of respect to their god as the people around them (Fluri, 2011). They also also hold power within the household through social networking for her family, giving her the responsibility to extend the family contacts through this manner and control who the family is associated with (Fluri, 2011). Women would traditionally gather in places void of men forming their own social sphere to better themselves and their families(Schütte,2014). Women even sometimes marry for the sake of creating a permanent connection to another family. All of these concepts are completely foreign to westerners as we don’t socialize in this manner, but even if we don’t except their social norms, that doesn’t give us a right to critique it.

The financial statement analysis of Doctors Hospital raises hopes and concerns regarding the financial performance and financial situation of the hospital. A rise in net assets and drop in liabilities will support the financial base of the hospital. Profits from short-term I nvestments should maintain this base, and improve the total assets. There is a concern in regards to cash flow and net income. There is a large reduction in cash flow of $2,222,000, which means there might be a shortage in cash flow to continue the project or purchase capital equipment. The organization should have to find solutions like to borrow from banks, spreading payments in future, etc. to manage the shortage of cash flow (Finkler et al., 2013). Another area

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.

Women are constantly being put down as if they are not good enough; discrimination of women is sadly seen throughout the world in history. Women have and still are degraded as inferior to men, forced to think that it is the woman's ‘duty’ to tend the house and children while the men do the ‘important’ work. Within the 20th and early 21st century, Afghanistan’s female population has had to endure the harshest of these sexist restraints. The book A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is able to accurately describe the typical life of a female in modern Afghan society, causing the readers to feel as if they are suffering alongside the main characters, Mariam and Laila. A Thousand Splendid Suns is not just one of the most inspirational and

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

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 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.

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.

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