The Path For Gender Equality

– While the Afghan government and international community are working for women’s rights, since most women are illiterate, they are not engaged in the process. Thus the government has reduced women’s rights when it feels it is politically expedient: In February 2009 President Karzai signed a law which affects several key rights of Afghan Shi’a

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 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

I previously talked about the mistreatment of women but something that is also very important is how women feel about all of this. It is very easy to find out the issue at hand but in order to really understand, we need to dig deeper. In the book, one character who lives Peshawar, Pakistan reminisces of how “easily violence happens here, how quickly it passes, with everyone acting as if everything is normal soon afterward” (Staples 81). Peace is a desperate situation for Afghanistan and Pakistan because of the Taliban’s sharia. When the character says that violence is easily caused, it relates to current day as well and how the treatment of women and Taliban rule is continuous. According to an article named “FATA women and the question of Taliban sharia”, “The precedent of Taliban rule and their treatment of women are visible next door to us”. This scenario is present throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan which make me wonder how these countries can return to peace after a long period of time where nothing was right.

According to the Taliban’s interpretation of the Holy Koran, women were inferior in every aspect of life. As a result women and girls were stripped of their rights and were considered possessions. As Sirius Black said in the novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, “… to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” (Rowling, 2000). The Taliban’s treatment of their “inferiors” shows their indifference towards the helpless innocents of their society, an inability to feel compassion regarded as a villainous trait.

In conclusion, women in Muslim culture, especially in Afghanistan, have been violated of their right to a safe and free life. Hopefully the way men treat women in these societies changes for the better. As humans, people all know what is morally right and are capable of treating each other fairly, and if everyone were to act this way, the oppression towards women may be

Before the Taliban, life was adequately normal for Afghan women. When the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan women’s rights were disrespected and the Afghan women were disregarded. Once the Taliban fled, the women of Afghanistan started to regain their rights and are acknowledged for their power today. The Taliban abused women physically and mentally by whipping them, hosting executions, and brutalizing their rights; today about 67% of girls living in Afghanistan still do not go to

Violence against women is prevalent and the hidden figures are extremely high.” (Torunn) Instead of taking measures to protect women from violence, the government has hidden more violence to encourage men to be violent. Rape will not be convicted in Afghanistan, because the law favors men and allows them to do immoral things. No one can change or stop it the violence happen, which leads to the increasingly common and ordinary violence.

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

Afghanistan has a high percentage of Muslims in the country, about 99%. This has affected the country a great deal throughout history. The effects of Islam in Afghanistan are numerous, including - but not limited to - The Taliban’s rise to power, the discrimination against different sects of Islam and other religion, and the treatment of women. Many of these effects have lasted for years and have spread throughout the world.

After 20 years of civil war, the Taliban, an extremist militia, took over and plunged Afghanistan into gender apartheid. The Taliban is a group composed of all men; they initially started to take over in 1994, but they didn’t overthrow the capital, Kabul, until 1996. Many people originally thought they would help stabilize the country; however, its oppressive laws threw women into destitution. Shortly after the Taliban came to power, women’s right for healthcare, education, and other lifestyle constraints drastically changed placing women into a state of virtual house arrest.

Hosseini addresses the prolonged government instability and how such conditions enable women’s rights to be denied. A particularly atrocious period was under the Taliban, when the right’s of women were openly denied and unprotected (Gender Inequality in Afghanistan). The Taliban imposed extremely strict interpretation of Islamic law, which included certain expectations for women and those who did not follow such strict protocol faced harsh punishments. Hosseini draws on this concept Farzana, Hassan’s wife, was attacked in the streets of Kabul as “A young Talib ran over and hit her on the thighs with his wooden stick…He was screaming at her and cursing and saying the Ministry of Vice and Virtue does not allow women to speak loudly” (Hosseini 216). The Taliban denied women opportunities to education, employment, and other aspects of social life (“Taliban”).

As the Afghan civil war continued, things progressively got worse for Afghan women, as more of Afghanistan landed under Taliban control. In 1992 when the Marxism inspired government that had been left behind as a result of the Soviet Union fell, it was instead replaced with a more traditional Islamic inspired government, and as such the Islamic State of Afghanistan was created. This was when the rights and treatments towards women can clearly be seen to be backtracking as the constitution was abandoned and a number of new laws were imposed. Part two of the civil war saw significant deterioration of Afghan women’s rights as the Taliban gained more control of Afghanistan.

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