Essay on Women in Afghanistan

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.

One of the most radical religious groups in the world today are known as the Taliban. The Taliban is a “fundamentalist Muslim group that controlled much of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001” (Maley NP). The Taliban took power after the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. When the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, the Taliban rose to power and took much control of the country. The Taliban leader is Mullah Mohammad Omar. The Taliban in Afghanistan are an Islāmic group, that uses harsh rules against Afghanistan’s women and helped attacked the United States.

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.

There was an extreme group called Afghanistan’s government, Also known as The Taliban. They were protecting

The situation in Afghanistan actually began in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded their country. The United States funded money to the "mujahedin," or holy warriors, in the name of stopping communism. From this support, Afghanistan was able to defeat the Soviet Union in 1989. Yet the country became very unstable after the war. Political power was fluctuating often and leaders came in and out of power rapidly. Farmers resorted to growing many drugs such as poppies and marijuana and sold them around the globe. Cities were annihilated. Over five million Afghanis fled to other countries in search of a better life. When the Afghanis turned to the United States for help in rebuilding our country, we refused. This caused great anger amongst the Afghani people directed toward the United States. This also lead to Mullah Mohammod Omar, the current leader of Afghanistan, to form a ground of men to "rebuild" his country. They are now known as the Taliban. Omar's personal description is, "A simple band of dedicated youths determined to establish the laws of God on

The Taliban founded in the year of 1994 by a man named Mullah Mohammad Omar. It originated in Afghanistan and was created with the purpose of destroying the foreign military in Afghanistan and to reestablish the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under strict Sharia Law ("Taliban Narrative"). The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan would then be brought back into play in the year of 1996. However, the event that led to the creation of the Taliban happened almost a decade earlier in the year of 1979. In 1979 the Soviets began invading Afghanistan, they were there for about ten years and then withdrew late in the year of 1988 and early 1989. Mujahedeen forces then removed the soviet government in the year of 1992 and led to rivalry between groups. A year

Anti-American sentiment grew in Afghanistan as a result of American policy neither leaving the country alone nor helping to rebuild it. When the Geneva Accords were signed on April 14, 1988, it ended Soviet involvement and ushered in a new era for Afghanistan. The creation of a radical, extremist government by the Taliban allowed for other extremists to join them in establishing a radical Muslim state. Many foreign investors, such as Osama Bin Laden, funded the Taliban army in exchange for political control. According to journalist Ahmed Rashid, “[Osama] funded a lot of their activities. He provided funds to them. And he 's also become a kind of ideological mentor of theirs in the sense he introduced them in many ways to the world of

The Taliban is one of the largest Islamic terrorist organizations in the world, which was founded on 10/10/94. The Taliban held Osama Bin Laden Al-Qaeda’s leader. The Afghan war was the U.S.’s response for the 9/11 attack. They wanted to liberate Afghanistan and stop Osama by any means possible.

The United States briefly supported the Taliban, hoping it would restore order in the war-ravaged country after Soviet war in Afghanistan. Taliban movement traces its origin to the Pakistani-trained mujahideen in northern Pakistan during Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

In fact, the United States under President Reagan formed a union with the group to help in the recruitment of forces and counterinsurgency against the Soviet Union. However, the decision of the United States to support this group in Asia was counterproductive especially after 9/11. Instead of targeting the Soviet Union, the Taliban turned their weaponry against the United States by supporting terrorist organizations. Though Pakistan also participated in the creation of the group, they failed to cooperate with the Americans to pacify its influence after 9/11. Both the United States and Pakistan had an active role to play in the formation and strengthening of the Taliban. The United States provided the group with both

The U.S, along with allies; United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany refused the offer and launched attacks on the Taliban. After more than 15 years of fighting in Afghanistan the Taliban currently owns 36.6% of the country (CNN, 2016). During the 15 years that the war has been fought over, there have been a total of 111,442 deaths, not just military forces involved but also afghan civilians, humanitarians, journalists and contractors (Yorker, 2015). Over 1.5 trillion (USD) has been spent on operations in Afghanistan by all parties (CNN, 2016). Since the start of the war many countries have been involved, majority for a small period of time, and on the side of the U.S. The Taliban have not received support from any country or major terrorist organisations other that

The Afghans were glad to have the Taliban in the beginning because the Taliban got their start as men started bringing in cash to the Afghans fighting the Russians.

1. Abu Lughod argues that the “liberation” from burqas, wanted by American women for Afghan women, is an extension of colonialism and western domination because the western women fail to understand what liberation is for the Afghan women. Western women think that the Afghan women are unhappy with their religion because it physically restricts them. On the contrary, Afghan women like their burqas because they feel it brings them closer to Allah. They also culturally disagree with the openness of American fashion. The idea that western women do not take into account the Afghan woman’s perspective on life, and automatically assume that they are trapped by their way of life, can be compared to America’s way of “helping” nations that they believe

On December, 24th 1979 Soviets invaded Afghanistan, starting a nationwide rebellion by Islamic fighters and extremist, the fierce gorilla style fighting aided to the overall withdrawal of soviet force a decade after the initial attack on the country (Witte, Griff). Within a few years of the country relieving it’s self of Soviet rule the country focused their anger on themselves, starting a mass Civil War. In the mid-1990s, the Taliban began defeating local warlords and received support from Pakistan, by 1995, the Taliban is looked at as the government of Afghanistan (PBS.com). This would start phase one for The United States, the United States refusing that the Taliban held rule in Afghanistan as well as wanting to topple the Taliban. The two bomb bombings on American embassies in Africa led to the cruise missile attacks against Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan later on that year. On September 9, 2001, two men associated with the killing of the Northern Alliance leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud, who looked toward the United States for bigger financial backing, with his murder the coordinated attacks on September 11, 2001 where in motion (Witte,

New Zealand involvement in the Afghanistan War, related to the war in Afghanistan which has occurred from 1978 – referred to as the second Afghan Civil War ("Afghanistan Key facts and figures,"). Afghanistan is very complex place, with many different ethnic groups and languages, this is due to the geographical location of Afghanistan, a bit of a intersection of sorts culturally, the conflict that mostly influenced the beginning of what would eventually get New Zealand involved in the Afghanistan war was when Russia was pushing for more control and bordering on Afghanistan –this lead to communism with the Soviet Union, then the communism movement collapsed, and the eventual taking over of control of Afghanistan occurred by the Taliban– The Taliban were in control from around 1992 . But from 1996 to 2001 was the period commonly referred to as the “Taliban period” ("Taliban Facts, information, pictures,")– when the Taliban were most dominant. The Taliban originated from northern Pakistan, and were resistance fighters known as Mujahideen, who fought against the Russian Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan ("Taliban Regime,"). The Taliban are a Islamic fundamentalist political organisation that formed a government, and ruled the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, initially looking like saviours to the people as they fought and won against a Russians, but once they took over they inflicted strict and harsh policies upon the people of Afghanistan, and were well