Women's Rights In Afghanistan

– Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, women have gained political rights. The recently adopted Afghan constitution states that “the citizens of Afghanistan –whether man or woman—have equal rights and duties before the law.”

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.

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.

Rape happens to many women, including Mariam and Laila. They never say no when he wants sex because that will set him off and they will get abused. It’s a terrible cycle. Women are always expected to cater to a man’s needs. Another cultural difference is violence of the Taliban. They make a rise in the middle of the novel and continue to get worse. Women’s few rights are shaved down to literally nothing when the Taliban take control of Afghanistan. Laila loses her parents in an explosion caused by the Taliban. No one is criminalized for it. Soon after Laila and Rasheed’s marriage, the Taliban force the women of Afghanistan to stay inside. Literally. If they leave their house without a male presence, they get violently abused and sent home. Laila tries to visit her daughter in the orphanage that Rasheed sent her to, and a young Taliban member slashes her numerous times with a car antenna. The concept of young children fighting for one’s country is peculiar. Taliban also ban women from working and going to school. They shut down every woman’s school to make offices for themselves. When Laila goes into labor, Rasheed rushes her to a hospital, which no longer sees women. The Taliban are responsible for that. They then go to a woman’s hospital and they reject her as well. Finally they find a hospital

For a woman living in Afghanistan in the late twentieth century, following the rules is essential to staying alive. Mariam is used to following the rules in her life, starting as a small child listening to her mother, Nana. The forced obedience she adopts because of Nana follows her throughout her whole life, all the way through her arranged and abusive marriage to Rasheed. Eventually, the abuse from Rasheed grows to be overwhelming, and Mariam breaks an ultimate law: she commits murder. Mariam lives nearly her entire life abiding by rules set for her by her mother and her husband, but when she goes against them she is able to briefly experience freedom.

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

As odd as the restrictions women had, the punishments for violations were even more unbelievable. To humiliate the women, most of the punishments were available to be seen by the public. The penalties for broken laws were often held public in sports stadiums, town squares, or other densely populated areas for everyone to see. For a minor infraction, oftentimes the one who committed the transgression was often beaten until unconscious. A woman once had her thumb removed because her thumb nail was exposed, and when the Taliban guard saw this, she was taken into the town square to have her exposed thumb taken off. The things that the Taliban do to innocent citizens are cruel, and they should be the ones being reprimanded, not the other way around. In general, many of the punishments that the Taliban give out to women are, in most cases, much too excessive for such insignificant “crimes”. (Delcan Walsh)

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.

In the case of Afghani women’s memoirs and life stories offer new understanding of life under repression and how Afghani women struggled to keep their autonomy despite the oppression they faced. “Zoya’s Story”, “My Forbidden Face”, and “A Bed of Red Flowers” are memoirs written by Afghani women who experienced life under the Soviet Union and the Taliban in Afghanistan. These memoires along with interviews with Afghan women provided a complete picture that Afghani women are not as passive as they are portrayed in the history and book in the media. Women resisted in different shape and form, some engages in violent resistance, while others engaged in non-violent form of opposition. For instance, Zoya joined RAWA and participated in non-violent

Women have had a tumultuous history within the country of Afghanistan. They have face many setbacks and have fought tooth and nail to get where they are today. But even today, a woman is subjected to death threats and violence because of her efforts to further women’s rights in the country. Years of Taliban rule has forced women into lower than second class citizenry, where it was acceptable and encouraged to treat women as property and nothing more than something which to abuse, demoralize, and trade as property in order to increase a man’s social setting. This lesson plan will address how women have been treated over the years, their roles, and the effect the Taliban has played on their lives.

Oppression of women, especially in the thirds world countries like Afghanistan have been an ongoing struggle. An Afghani woman’s roles and identity is strictly associated with her family and tribe, the woman is a part of society, but her identity does not belong to her it belongs to her family at large. Afghanistan is a traditional and religious countries, therefore Gender roles is clearly market in the Afghan society. Afghani women had a difficult road toward getting their liberty in society where male are superior to women in status. In the past four decades, Afghanistan has been under the rule of different political ideologies, the Soviet communism from 1979-1989 and the Taliban regime from 1996-2011. Both the Soviet Union and the Taliban oppressed women in one way or another, the systematic oppression of Afghani women portrayed them as passive members of the society.

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.

On April 28, 1992, Mujahadeen factions stormed Kabul and declared themselves rulers of Afghanistan. What followed is considered the darkest period in Afghan history, especially for Afghan women. However, the Taliban rapidly showed their true colors by declaring Sharia laws that included a complete removal of women from society, strict Islamic dress code for men, and other ridiculous laws such as a ban on books, television, cameras, and radios. Faced with no way to earn a living, Afghan women silently wasted away inside their homes, depressed and suicidal. Many women turned to beggary and prostitution to survive. Under the Taliban, one half of the population virtually disappeared from society, appearing in public only under the shroud of the

The Taliban became responsible for punishing those who committed crimes by killing the criminals. These acts started a small fear in the Afghanistan people. Soon, the Taliban group became a well armed and well funded militia with the support of a province in Pakistan. As soon as fear stirred among the Afghani people, the president of Afghanistan, Burhanuddin Rabbani, tried to create an alliance against the Taliban in Kabul, the capitol. This alliance fell through, and the president eventually fled Afghanistan. In December of 1995, the Taliban took hold of Afghanistan as a result.

women in Afghanistan does not have the right to vote. They cannot decide anything about politics. Even in their life they cannot choose what to wear. While in usa the women can vote for anything. They can choose their clothes and everything they want. In 1985 a lot of women in Afghanistan commit suicide. 30 percent of women trying every day to commit suicide