Women For Women 's Rights

Although the issue of women’s rights has attracted international recognition and support, women still face many inequalities and barriers. Gender-based violence and economic discrimination are problems in many parts of the world.

Mariam and Laila represent only a part of all the trials and tribulations the Afghan women have endured throughout their lives and project how violence can affect individuals emotionally, mentally and physically.

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.

Women’s rights in America in late 1800’s women’s right to vote women in medicine and the equal rights for women are the 3 main points that were big in the 1800’s.

In the Frontline documentary, “The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan” examines how Afghanistan struggle with child sexual slavery and human trafficking of young boy’s ages 5-15 for social and sexual entertainment that was once considered an ancient custom during the early 1800 called Bacha Bazi was subsequently banned under Taliban rule. Although is purported to be a widespread problem inducted by military commanders and wealthy men for power or economic gain as tradition, it is actually modern day pedophilia and child abuse. The Afghan criminal justice system makes it impossible to convict against these serious crimes primarily because quasi-legal regulation does not have legally binding weight since Islamic laws restrict human right freedoms,

Prior to the rise of the Taliban, life for women in Afghanistan was improving dramatically. In Laila’s father’s words, “Women have always had it hard in this country… But it’s true, it’s a good time to be a woman in Afghanistan” (Hosseini 121). Women were able to teach in universities and schools and even hold office in the government. However, once the Taliban came to power in 1996, women were stripped of their basic rights and practically ordered on house arrest.

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.

In Afghan society, a forced marriage is when either the man or women is married against one’s will. This includes childhood brides and young women who are sold from their family in order to pay off debt. Adolescents that are forced into marriages in Afghanistan are consistently mistreated and abused in their households. In the article “Afghanistan: Women, Socially Bound and Officially Neglected”, it states how an Afghan practice called ‘baad’ has killed a 7-year-old victim. The girl had been given into marriage and was used as a slave

(SIP-A) According to 123helpme.com, women whom are not wearing burqas are beaten up cruelly in public. For Nusrat, the harassment of Asma using this rule gets Faiz thinking about returning to his homeland to help, which sets the whole story in Peshawar for Nusrat and creates her conflicts so she can attain self-realization. (STEWE-1) After Faiz receives a letter about Asma being harassed, he and Nusrat decide to move to Peshawar, where Sultan had informed them that Peshawar was going to be their new home. “Within a matter of weeks stories of abuse and beatings and jailings were everywhere. Sultan wrote to Faiz in 1998 that he was closing the house in Kabul and moving the family to Peshawar. Early in the spring of 2001 Faiz and Nusrat arrived in Peshawar, settling into the small house where within weeks Nusrat opened the garden to refugee children” (Staples 99). With additional news of troubling stories from Afghanistan, Nusrat notices Faiz is not as focused as he used to be. When Nusrat addresses this issue with him, she figures out he wants to go back and help his country. “‘Have you ever had something happen to a member of your family that you thought you might have been able to do something about?’ he asked one morning… ‘No, I have not,’ she said. ‘But your family

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.

These heinous events are happening all around the world. In this book, Suzanne Fisher Staples portrays how Najmah goes through the hardships of the Taliban bombing her family and how it impacts her and the people going through these same situations today.

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).

Women are discouraged from speaking with men women who are stranger. They are always watched wherever they go and cannot go out in public without a man escorting her or else the Taliban will arrest and imprison her. They are also required to cover every area of their body with a veil and a hijab. Osama’s mother was riding on a bike with a man when they were stopped by the Taliban because her feet and ankles were showing and she was whipped by the officer. The Taliban officer asked the man how he could take a woman out like that with her skin showing because it will arouse other men and made him responsible for the woman’s actions.

Afghanistan’s people have faced a number of frightening issues over the years. They have suffered through poverty, unemployment, a mediocre educational system, and most devastatingly, a long period of war. And though the whole country is affected by these conflicts, the many issues Afghanistan faces are especially unforgiving towards their women. While men are treated with the utmost respect, women are often treated with disregard of any basic human decency. In Afghanistan, women’s rights are severely restricted, and it’s sickening to see it still going on. Women, no matter where they live, should have the same rights as

Public-private divide structure the priorities of human rights issues in Afghanistan. The private sphere is traditional and immune to outside interferences. The public sphere is subject to interference from the outsiders. The United States government, like many other governments, most always has a hidden agenda when they choose what issues to privatize and what issues to publicize. American troops tend to ignore private issues such as domestic abuse and women’s education in Afghanistan because these issues are seen as private issues; however, when there is something to gain from interfering it becomes a public issue. Sharbat Gula is a young Afghan girl who for seventeen years was only a picture, lacking a name and a story in the American media. Seventeen years later the photographer, Steve McCurry, returned searching for this young girl to publicize her previous unimportant story. He returned to publicize the violation to women’s right to education in Afghanistan. The hidden agenda was to show the American people that Afghan women needed saving from their culture and society. Yet, there was no mention that the war that the United States is a part of is what ruined these women’s futures. The United States troops in Afghanistan rescued a brutally tortured and abused Afghan woman named Aisha Bibi after she was left to die in the mountains by the Taliban. At first glance the American audience see the American troops as heroes, however, when closely analyzed a hidden agenda