What Does It Mean To Be A Good Girl

Whether it is targeting girls who seek an education in Afghanistan or treating women like second-class citizens in Saudi Arabia, the fact is that the oppression of women is essentially about coveting power and dominating women. A man thrives to appear as

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.

For many decades, women have experienced all forms of oppression and constant violence that threatened their existence in the male-dominated society. Various forms of discrimination and oppression have been directed to women for decades. Violence directed at women such as rape and battery were seen and treated as isolated scenarios. However, as the need to foster gender equality took pace, such oppressive actions are now perceived as elements of a wider system of dominance in the society that that needs to be addressed as a whole rather than in singularity

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.

A patriarchal society dominated the early years in Afghanistan. This society is not also apparent in modern America. Women may not be treated as badly, but are still not treated equally. For example, women do not necessarily get paid the same as men even when they do the same job. In fact, America has never even had a woman president.

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.

Khaled shows through his novel that it is almost always the male that is doing the abusing in their Afghan society at the time. Mariam makes it clear that the women are helpless against the power of the male by incorporating statements such as, “As a reminder of how women like us suffer. How quietly we endure all that falls upon us.” (91). Under the

The Taliban implemented laws restricting the movements and actions of women in Afghanistan in public places. While attempting to visit her child in a home for young girls, Laila is beaten within an inch of her life as a consequence of walking outside without a male escort (Hosseini). The extreme course of action, beating a woman for walking alone, demonstrates the illogical and unjustifiable actions the Taliban promotes the practice of in Afghanistan. The women and men have dramatically unequal 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

Sadly, many countries and/or communities still have that macho way of thinking, believing that a woman only has two jobs in life, serve her family and bear children. Unfortunately, in many cases, these women are being mistreated, beaten and/or shut down. We can see examples of these situations in some countries of the Middle East.

Afghanistan women have no say in what they do and are thrown around like they are some kind of ball. This is all do to their strict religion where men have 95% of the power, or a say in everything that is done. Whereas in the United States women are almost equivalent to men. United States women are able to pursue their dreams whether it be an accountant to a surgeon. Women in Afghanistan

In a nation where segregation of two different sexes are strictly enforced, Afghan boys are seen has family’s most prized possession whereas girls are bounded by societal rules and culture that prevents them from having the most basic freedom such as running errands, playing outside the house and determining their own future.

The defeatist mindset of women can perpetuate their own continued oppression. This is the psychological result of extreme oppression, abuse and marginalization of women in a radically patriarchal society like Afghanistan. In this society, one might assume that the power of men is reinforced mostly by fellow men; however, it is enlightening to learn that women themselves can perpetuate male privilege when they succumb to defeatism. Khaled Hosseini does an excellent job demonstrating this phenomenon in A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini effectively shows Afghanistan as the quintessential patriarchal society that is oppressive to women and subverts feminism through abuse of human rights.

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

Throughout the world, especially in the Middle East and Africa, women are treated as inferiors to men. According to a study conducted by Save the Children and World Vision, Afghanistan was ranked in the Top 10 worst countries to be a girl. Despite their efforts to gender parity, foreign countries, such the United States and Russia, have only managed to increase Afghan’s discrimination of women. The countries’ endeavors to educate and emancipate women through radical reforms, in which banned the selling of women for marriage, proved to be futile. Perhaps Afghanistan’s bigotry is most apparent through their ideology on women; their greatest being their notion on birth. In Afghanistan, "a woman who cannot birth a son in a patrilineal culture is