“Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength” (G.D. Anderson).
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan for a short period of time and their rules neglected women and treated them as second-class citizens. The strongly enforced laws imposed, shifted the beliefs of how Afghan men treat and regard women in their society. An eighteen-year-old woman was interviewed for this essay with the purpose of showing any significant cultural shifts that have occurred in Afghanistan during the last thirty years. My interviewee migrated from Afghanistan with her family after the civil war because her parents feared for the families’ safety. Extensive research and the interview suggested interesting trends regarding women’s rights, before during and after the rule of the Taliban.
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Women’s right is one issue that is constantly evolving in Afghanistan, however after the third Anglo-Afghan war, their rights were on par with many Western countries (10). This war ended in 1919 and resulted in another change of leadership, this was the beginning of a promising time for Afghanistan women (12). Certain women were able to vote in 1919, only a year after England who many believe are a pioneer of equality for both genders (3). During the 1950’s, Afghanistan introduced Purdah, abolishing gender separation and during the 1960’s the constitution was officially changed for equality between both genders in Afghanistan (3). These changes to the legal system showed that Afghanistan was a relatively equal place for men and women to live and was contrary to how most of the global population view the treatment of women in Afghanistan. The 1979 invasion by Soviet forces greatly changed the scope of the country, leaving women to be classified as second-hand citizens
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
Women in Afghanistan still have very little say and are still being mistreated. Women before the Taliban had rights and were able to work and go out like men. During the 1920’s and before the invasion in 1979 women had some rights. When the Soviets invaded in 1979 and the war started women’s rights started to go away. In 1996 when the Taliban took over women’s rights were completely pushed back.
Khaled Hosseini presents the struggle Afghan women go through every day by discussing honour, marriage and the place of women in society in Afghanistan.
Afghan women seem to have better fortune in America than in Afghanistan. Before Amir and Baba moved to America the only women that were mentioned were not around anymore making it seem like they were not important in the first place. Once Amir and Baba were living in America there were female characters brought in to show that they were able to live their lives better than in Afghanistan. The women were better off in America even before the Taliban took over Afghanistan because they were no longer talked about as disappointments. The lack of women in the novel shows how the men thought of the women as if they were not as capable of doing the things they were able to. Baba was a business leader who did things that were unspeakable in Afghanistan
During the mid 90’s, an Islamic fundamentalist group called the “Taliban” took control of central Afghanistan. This sudden regime change caused a catastrophic loss of civil liberties as well as civil disrupt throughout the entire country, causing many surges in Afghani immigrants. Political journalist of “The Taliban: War, Religion, and the New Order in Afghanistan” Peter Marsden, writes about how women in Afghanistan were forced to wear chakri 's in public, and could not leave the home without a male guardian. In afghanistan, women faced many internal barriers that violated their unalienable rights, and this in turn impeded their ability to evade from such violation through
In the 1920’s, women in America fought for their right to vote. Now, in 2016, all races and both genders are allowed to vote. Women are no longer discriminated against, and they are seen as strong, smart, and independent. Women in Afghanistan, however do not have the pleasure of even going outside without having to be covered from head to toe and without a male relative to escort them. Khaled Hosseini, author of A Thousand Splendid Suns, displays the struggle of Afghani women by telling the tragic stories of two women in the small town of Kabul.
The past several years in Afghanistan have changed the lives of Afghan women for the worse. The struggle of Afghan women started when the Taliban took over in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s. So many women are suffering from abuse, rape, and unwillingly marriage that they started secret women shelters. These shelters were made for women that could escape would have somewhere safe to stay. (Karishma Vyas).
The fall of the Taliban in 2001 opens the door for international forces led by the United States. During this vastly changing political landscape of the country, women’s rights have been exploited by different groups for political gain, and sometimes great improvements were made, but more often women were left forgotten and abused as something that can be loosely negotiated and frequently forgotten altogether in favor of terms that were deemed more pressing than women’s rights. But it has not always been like this for Afghan
The role women have in Afghanistan is unjust and unreasonable. Due to the rules and regulations, also known as the Sharia laws, implemented by the Taliban, women are constantly fighting a battle to survive in their everyday life. They are denied simple freedom. For example, women are deprived of education, liberty, and freedom. Forget about being able to drive, women cannot even step out of their house without permission from their husbands, or a legal male guardian.
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
Growing up and living in Afghanistan as a woman has its challenges. Parents choose who can marry you and they choose everything for you. In this book, Laila and Mariam both show the struggles it is to be a girl, and how much disrespect they get in Afghanistan. Both Mariam and Laila are married to the same man, and he is abusive to both of them. They also live under Taliban rule, and the rules that they set are very unfair for women. In Khaled Hosseni’s novel, he has many different themes but the most prevalent one is of woman inequality, and that is shown through multiple accounts of abuse, disrespect, and unfairness.
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.
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.
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.
“The Afghans concluded a treaty of friendship with the new Bolshevik regime in the Soviet Union. During soviet influence, the country had made progressive strides for women rights: “In 1964, Afghan women were granted the right to vote. The 1977 constitution clearly stated in its article 27 that “women and men, without discrimination have equal rights and obligations before the law. By the late 1970’s, female students outnumbered male students in Kabul. (Noury & Speciale, 2016) Even the