The Fight for Education in Taliban-Stricken Countries

Before Malala Yousafzai took a stand for children’s rights, countries throughout the Middle East were brutally oppressed by the Taliban. The Taliban are a radically militant Islamic movement that controlled some ninety percent of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 (“The Taliban Once Ruled”). In 2007, a faction of the Taliban regrouped across the border in Pakistan, invading northern cities including Mingora, a region in Swat Valley. These fundamentalist terrorists were brutal and rapidly became the dominant socio-political force in northern Pakistan (“Education in Pakistan”). The Taliban executed those who resisted and didn’t follow their harsh laws. According to a resident of Swat Valley, “we were very scared of them. Our education system was totally

The Taliban came into power in 2005 in Pakistan and began dictating the civilians how to live their lives the “right Islamic way”. The people of the Swat District were forced to obey every command of the Taliban unless they and their families wanted to be killed. Women especially became very oppressed and had to enter Purdah, wear hijabs whenever in public, and were encouraged to not go to school. All westernized media, clothes and games were banned, anyone who did not follow the law would be shot. The community lived in such a terrible state of fear that Malala and her family were afraid to go outside where they were known as famous social, political and educational activists. A BBC correspondent contacted Ziauddin to make a blog from a school girl’s point of view on living under Taliban rule. Malala soon took up the challenge and related her experiences over the phone about her oppressive life in Swat Valley and the threats against girls like her for going to school. Eventually, her school had to close after many local school bombings, and then the whole valley had to be evacuated for the Pakistani Army to come wipe out the Taliban.

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

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.

Problems that the Taliban have caused, in real life, have impacted the way that many innocent people in various Arab countries used to live--long ago, life was delectable to many. People lived in a state of tranquility, and could live accompanied by one word: freedom. However, later on, and not long ago, the Taliban created a set of strict, over-the top rules that have not only completely

In 2011, 24-year-old Joe DeNenno traveled to Afghanistan with the intent to change the lives of the children in the Zhari District. He teamed up with the local security forces and government officials to build new schools throughout the district to improve the education for local children. One billion dollars went towards the funding of schools and rise of education in Afghanistan. But nearly four years later, one would not be able to see a difference between the schools and a town that's been hit by a category 3 hurricane. From leaky roofs to cut up doors, the schools were no longer a place for education but rather a place for warlords to inhabit. Over 50 American funded schools were now battlefield provinces. These runned down schools were

Education is what provides us the opportunity to learn new things and it helps to build our knowledge by expanding horizon. After Dawood Khan, the president of Afghanistan was assassinated by PDPA during 1970s and Afghanistan had become democratic and republic, education for girls was required. There were certain social reforms such as banning burqas and raising the minimum age for marriage. However, the invasions of Soviet, Mujahideen and Taliban forces revoked several women’s rights. Under the Taliban rule, women were imprisoned in their homes. Girls were forbidden from attending a school and were beaten if found alone in the street. Punishments were hard if their discriminatory laws were violated. (“Women in Afghanistan: The Back Story”). Even though women have gained some political rights now after the Taliban rule in 2001, but there are still many afghan

When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, millions of women wanted to flee from their oppressive regime. Even with so many wanting to leave however, several barriers including the Taliban’s extensive civil rights restrictions, and the U.S’s increased immigration restrictions prevented a proportional amount of Afghani women from immigrating. The sudden regime change in Afghanistan caused a catastrophic loss of civil liberties as well as civil disrupt throughout the entire country, causing a sudden surge in Afghani immigration. Political

The Taliban told women, “You will stay inside your homes at all times…If you go outside, you must be accompanied by a mahram, a male relative” (Hosseini 248). On top of that, “Girls [were] forbidden from attending school. All schools for girls [were] closed immediately” (Hosseini

This article is a reliable source for my topic because it shows what talibans are doing in terms of girls education and also Malala is a great example for everyone to speak up for their rights and not to give up. She didn’t got scared of the taliban

Women in third world countries are not given the same opportunities when it comes to education. The ratio of girls to boys who attend school in Afghanistan in today's society is 5:16. Despite how low this is compared to the Unites States, which is 43:56 male to female, Afghanistan has come a long way since in the past fifteen years. In

In a male dominated society, the women of Afghanistan face many pressures and limits that are taught and ingrained in them at a very young age. Women and girls are seen as less than men and boys. They are viewed as being weak and unimportant. They are often pulled out of school and shunned to the house during their middle school years. Society sees no reason to educate girls when the whole point of girls is to serve as wives to their husbands and mothers to sons. They are taught that their entire worth depends on how happy they make their husband. As depicted by Jenny Norberg in The Underground Girls of Kabul, Afghanistan is a horrible place to be a woman. The pressure to birth sons, uphold a perfect reputation, and the economic disadvantages women face often force them to become men to have basic human respect and survival.

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

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