Women in Afghanistan
GWS 220
Holly Theobald
Essay 1, Final Draft
In 1984, National Geographic photographer, Steve McCurry, shot a portrait that intrigued the Western world. The photo was of a refugee Afghan woman with haunting green eyes. Her direct gaze into the camera became a lasting iconic image, recognizable around the world. The photo became a symbol of strength, resilience, and beauty. Her identity was unknown until March of 2002.
The woman with the piercing eyes is Sharbat Gula. She is a woman who has lived through war, poverty, drought, and tribalism. Because of the lacks of healthcare, one of her four daughters died in infancy. Her brother shared with National Geographic that “she has never known a happy day in her life”. At 35 years old, Sharbat can write her name, but she cannot read. She wants her daughters to go to school, although she admits it is probably too late for her oldest at thirteen. When Sharbat goes into town, she disappears from the eyes of the world in the folds of her burqa that covers her from head to toe. Cultural tradition forbids her to look at the man that is interviewing her as she admits that she has never felt safe in her life. Her green eyes now hold a hardened hurt and perseverance that tell of the horrors she has witnessed and been subjected to in a country wrought with inhumanities.
Sharbat’s story is not uncommon. Many women in Afghanistan suffer under violence and have been denied many basic human rights.. Women live in fear and seclusion, repressed by fear, men, and cultural tradition. Since the Taliban’s overthrow in 2001 and the presence of international aid, women have gained some protection, but they still have a long way to go. The government in Afghanistan is weak and many women are scared that the Taliban will return to power and they will be persecuted for their strides. With the withdrawal of US troops expected to be completed by 2014, women in Afghanistan are left with an uncertain future and it is pertinent to protect the few rights they have gained in the past ten years and to continue to strive for more.
The Taliban began its reign over Afghanistan in 1996. The Taliban is an Islamic militant and political group that enforces the strictest interpretation of sharia (Islamic) law. The sharia law is a strict code of laws that has been extracted and reinterpreted from the Quran. It is important to understand that the Taliban’s version of Islam is not supported by the world’s Muslims. Traditionally, Islam has protected the rights of women and children and it is demanded that men and women be equal before God ( Bloom and Blair, page 6).
While the Taliban was in rule, laws were issued forbidding women from becoming educated and girls were forced out of school and college. Employment by women was forbidden and as a result, several schools were closed because the majority of teachers were women. Women were not allowed to leave their home unless they were accompanied by a male relative and wearing a traditional dress called a burqa that covered them from head to toe. Women who broke these laws were publicly beaten by the Taliban’s religious police. Employment As a result of the strict laws repressing women, women became confined to their homes and were restricted in meeting one another. The Taliban even required that windows of homes be painted over to prevent anyone from possibly seeing women inside their homes.
It is important to understand that before the rise of the Taliban, violence against women was already present. The rule of the Taliban from 1996 to 2001 just enhanced it. Violence against women has always existed in Afghanistan and it can be traced to the strong and strict cultural tradition, particularly that of the male dominated code of Pashtunwali. Pashtunwali is the verbal ethical and traditional code that indigenous Pashtun people follow. It dates back to pre-Islamic times, but is still widely practiced, especially in rural areas. Pashtunwali enforces a strict segregation between men and women that is considered necessary to uphold honor (Kakar, page 2). Men use strict and sometimes fatal consequence to enforce this practice. Women are abused, raped, mutilated, degraded, and sometimes murdered and it is justified through this cultural tradition.
In 2001, US troops invaded Afghanistan in a motion for global security after the September 11th terrorist attacks. Shortly after US troops entered Afghanistan, First Lady Laura Bush shared in a radio address that the fight against terrorism was “also a fight for the rights and dignity of women.” UK politicians also said the reason they became involved in Afghanistan was for the rights of women. The Taliban was overthrown in October of 2001. Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, a new Afghan constitution was written guaranteeing equal rights to men and women, but the government is weak and there is still much violence against women
Since 2001, women of Afghanistan have admitted that there is a huge difference in their lives since the fall of the Taliban, Afghan women and girls are allowed to attend schools, colleges, and universities once again. Women are serving in the government and are visible in society serving as doctors, teachers, professors and lawyers. In a survey performed by ActionAid in 2011, 66% of women in Afghanistan fell safer than they did ten years ago and 72% believe their lives are better (ActionAid, page 4). These achievements are impressive, but women are still fighting for equality and human rights. Women are still being punished under traditional codes and abuse is common. Women in government positions are excluded from decision making because they lack money and political networks and support. Progress is slow, and women are in fear of the uncertainty of their future. Many admit their largest fear is that the Taliban will return to power after the US troops leave. After ten years of war, it is hard to imagine that the Taliban would regain control, but the US has admitted that they are talking to the Taliban and trying to set up a peace deal to prevent a civil war when all the troops are withdrawn. This makes women’s rights activist nervous because they are afraid that a rushed peace deal will occur with the Taliban in order to pull the troops out by the announced time, and in the process, women’s rights and interests will not be protected (Reid, page 7).
In 2009, a law titled “Elimination of Violence against Women” (EVAW) was passed in Afghanistan. It criminalizes child marriage, forced marriage, forced self-immolation, rape, beating and 17 other acts of violence against women. According to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay: “Judges, prosecutors and police in many parts of Afghanistan have begun to use the new law, which is a positive development, but unfortunately only in a small percentage of violence against women cases.” It is difficult to really measure how effective the new law is because there is no official statistics on the number of cases of violence against women and many cases go unreported.
Women’s right organizations such as the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has sought to provide education, health care, cultural information, propaganda, and financial assistance within Afghanistan for women since 1977. They seek to educate and give women a valuable political awareness that is necessary for the future. According to the official RAWA website, “The US ‘War on terrorism’ removed the Taliban regime in October 2001, but it has not removed religious fundamentalism which is the main cause of all our miseries…freedom and democracy can’t be donated; it is the duty of the people of the country to fight to achieve these values.”
Another organization, ActionAid International, developed a Paralegal Project in 2008 within Afghanistan to train women paralegals so they can help women survivors of violence to gain just and fair legal compensation. The training is provided in the context of Afghan laws and Islamic Sharia and court procedures. After the paralegals are trained they establish community groups to educate other women about their rights.
In addition to political awareness and education, women in Afghanistan need support from the men of the country as well as the international community to support their growing role in society. With the absence of international aid, the women of Afghanistan are in a frightening position. It is important that the people of the world gain solidarity and support Afghan women with awareness and equality.
27 years after Steve McCurry captured the haunting image of Sharbat Gula, a new image of an Afghan woman appears on the cover of National Geographic. It is reminiscent to the original shot except for one thing: The woman in the picture has a gaping hole where her nose should be. The woman is 18 years old and her nose and ears were cut off by her husband as a punishment for her trying to run away after numerous beatings. In the middle of the night, he and a group of men took her to the mountains and mutilated her. The cover is a haunting and disturbing image that reminds us all of the constant and future struggles that Afghan women deal with on a daily basis.
For more information on how you can help the women of Afghanistan, visit these resources:
Works Cited
Ahmed-Ghosh, Huma. A History of Women in Afghanistan: Lessons Learnt for the Future. Diss. San Diego State University, 2003. Print.
"About RAWA..." The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Web. 01 Feb. 2012.
"A Just Peace." ActionAid. Sept. 2011. Web. Feb. 19.
Bloom, Jonathan, and Sheila Blair. Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2002. Print
Braun, David. "How They Found National Geographic's "Afghan Girl"" Daily Nature and Science News and Headlines | National Geographic News. 7 Mar. 2003. Web. 01 Feb. 2012.http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0311_020312_sharbat_2.html
Kakar, Palwasha. "Tribal Law of Pashtunwali and Women's Legislative Authority." Http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/ilsp/research/kakar.pdf. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
Patience, Martin. "BBC NEWS | South Asia | Afghan Women Who Turn to Immolation." BBC News - Home. Web. 02 Feb. 2012.
"Radio Address by Mrs. Bush." Welcome to the White House. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
Reid, Rachel The ‘Ten-Dollar Talib’ and Women’s Rights, Human Rights Watch, 2010. Print.
Seager, Joni. The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World: 4th Edition. Penguin Group; 2009. Print.
" The Taliban's War Against Women." U.S. Department of State. Web. 03 Feb. 2012.
"UN Launches Aid Appeal for Drought." WFP | United Nations World Food Programme - Fighting Hunger Worldwide. Web. 02 Feb. 2012.
Great paper. I have found learning about women who are living in the Middle East to be very interesting. Their daily lives are structured so differently compared to lives of women living in America. Head covering seems to be a huge topic of discussion when it comes to women in this area of the world. You mentioned that the Taliban had some influence on the enforcement of wearing the covering but are Islamic extremists also to blame? Or maybe the people of the Taliban would be considered Islamic extremists? I am finding that I have a lot more to learn. I could not imagine the fear and worry many of those women experience on a daily basis including being forced to cover from head to toe.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your paper, it sounds like many things for women in Afghanistan have changed for the better but achieving equal rights continues to be an uphill battle. Now that the Taliban is no longer in power, perhaps building stronger partnerships with other women's activist groups around the world would give the Afghan women the support they need to move even further toward gaining equal rights.
In your paper, I really liked the way you used the story of Sharbat to catch the reader’s attention and introduce the women of Afghanistan. By doing so, it helped add emotion to the paper. It also led the reader to understand that the suffering Sharbat had to go through was a very common problem for women in Afghanistan. I find it shocking how little rights the women in Afghanistan are granted. Knowing that women in their country don’t have the rights of employment or to leave their household without a man is very harsh. I thought it was unfair that women in America are paid less than their male co-workers but at least they are granted employment. Your paper is very well-written regarding the treatment of Afghanistan women and what is being done to improve such conditions.
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